Retired California minister arrested in Texas for carrying personal supply of medical marijuana

HOUSTON (AP)— A California man is facing possible prison time in Texas after he was arrested while carrying his supply of medical marijuana as he drove to Houston to visit his hospitalized granddaughter. The case of Phillip Blanton is an example of the nation’s conflicting attitudes toward marijuana, the Houston Chronicle reported. Medical marijuana is legal in 28 states and the District of Columbia. In 2015, Texas passed a law letting patients with a rare form of epilepsy be legally treated with cannabidiol, or CBD, a compound found in the marijuana plant. The law specifies minimum levels of CBD a product must have and permits only trace amounts of THC, which is the psychoactive chemical that produces a high. Texas is still working to issue licenses to retailers for the sale of medical marijuana-based products and the law is set to be implemented by Sept. 1. Blanton, 67, a retired Pentecostal minister and prisoner counselor, said he’d brought his supply of medical marijuana, about four ounces and dozens of marijuana-laced cookies, to treat chronic pain he suffers as a polio survivor. Medical marijuana is legal in Blanton’s home state of California.