8 March 14 - 20, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents pressed some discomfort with the process. “I am uncomfortable with the time we have taken to process this very important position,” City Council member Paul Ridley said during the Feb. 27 meeting, according to KERA. “This needed to be a very delibera- tive process, we needed an opportunity to consider all potential candidates and I don’t think we’ve had the time to do that.” Dallas City Council member Cara Men- delsohn said she too had a problem with the process. “I am concerned about a rush to name an interim when we should be considering all possibilities systematically, instead of a cam- paign that is lacking transparency,” Men- delsohn said at the meeting, KERA reported. “There are other internal and external candi- dates that we haven’t even considered.” In an emailed statement after the City Council voted to appoint Tolbert, Johnson said the process should have taken more time. “Making this kind of decision is ex- traordinarily important to the functioning of our city government and should not have been rushed,” Johnson said. The mayor added that his issue isn’t with Tolbert specifically. “My problem is with this deeply flawed process, not with the person,” Johnson said. “There was no reason we needed to start off this way. These decisions are too important to the future of our city to have been reduced to shameless politicking, maneuvering, and scheming.” He added: “It sends absolutely the wrong messages to the public and to prospective candidates for this critical job. We should be catering to the people’s best interests, not special interests.” However, Dallas City Council member Adam Bazaldua told the Observer he was proud to support Tolbert as the interim city manager and that the process to appoint her was fine. “Over the 30 years that she has served our city, she has proven to be the most skilled and experienced person to meet this moment,” Bazaldua said by text. “This decision was in no way rushed. I be- lieve instilling confidence and stability in thousands of residents and city employees was the goal, and we accomplished that goal with Kim’s appointment.” City Council member Paula Blackmon told the Observer by phone that Tolbert is a good fit for the interim job. “I think it’s a good appointment for this time because we needed stability and we needed someone who knows what’s going on and carry us, I’m thinking a year, before we get somebody in the permanent role,” Blackmon said. She did not believe the process was rushed. “The timeline, it was OK,” she said. “Let’s go ahead and just get it off our plate, make the appointment, let the transition happen amongst staff.” Dallas City Council member Gay Donnell Willis said it was clear there was not a criti- cal mass of support around any internal or external candidates. “So why delay when an appointment could convey stability to City employees and residents?” Willis said by text. “I want to see council focus energy on the search for new leadership, which I hope we can have in place by the end of the year.” Dallas uses a weak-mayor, council-manager model of governing the city, giving the city manager the responsibility to run the city’s day-to-day operations and to prepare the an- nual city budget. Cities such as Austin, San An- tonio, El Paso, Fort Worth, Arlington, Corpus Christi, Plano and Laredo also have council- manager models of governing, making the city manager a looming, powerful position. In an emailed statement after the vote, Tolbert said she was honored by the City Council’s decision to appoint her in the tem- porary role. “I remain committed to working in partnership with the council, staff, resi- dents, and businesses, to ensure a seamless and efficient operation of city government during this transition,” she said. She says prepared to stay laser focused on vital issues to the city, such as the upcoming bond program election, the 2025 budget, and stabilizing the police and fire pensions, adding, “These are complex challenges, but I believe the City Council and staff are stron- ger together.” Tolbert will earn more than $360,000 in the interim role. Broadnax said in an emailed statement that he believes Tolbert is more than quali- fied, capable and committed to lead the city during the transition to a new city manager. “I am confident she will work in partnership with the City Council and lead our talented and dedicated staff to serve our residents,” he wrote. Tolbert started working for the city in 1998 as assistant to the city manager and later moved to Dallas’ aviation department, ac- cording to The Dallas Morning News. She left for several years to work for the North Texas Tollway Authority. Broadnax then hired her as his chief of staff in 2017, promoting her to her current role in February 2022. Broadnax’s last day will be June 3. ▼ CANNABIS HEALING HIGH HERE’S HOW TO GET MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN TEXAS. BY JACOB VAUGHN A stute Observer readers are aware that the Lone Star State has a medical marijuana program called The Texas Compassionate Use Program (TCUP). Given how the state government has long been firmly against marijuana de- criminalization, let alone allowing recre- ational weed to become legal, it is understandably a bit surprising to many when they learn about this type of pro- gram in Texas. To be clear, the Texas style of legalized medicinal marijuana is worlds apart from what Oklahoma has been up to in recent years, where a dispensary seems to be on just about every corner these days. Compared to us, our neighbor to the north might as well be weed-friendly states California, Oregon and Colorado all rolled into one. But still, there are options for getting your special script filled here in North Texas. Thrive Apothecary in Fort Worth is one of the only doctor-owned stores that serves novel hemp cannabinoids, such as delta-8, and Texas medical marijuana prod- ucts, store manager Daryoush Austin Zam- hariri said. “We are a top leading prescriber for patients to get into [the Texas Compas- sionate Use Program],” Zamhariri said. What is the Texas Compassionate Use Program? Through TCUP, patients can have access to low-THC edibles. THC is the psychoactive compound in weed that gets users high. The program, however, doesn’t currently allow patients to be prescribed medical marijuana flower. The Texas Compassionate Use Act was passed in 2015 and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, starting the program. Initially, it was open to a very limited number of conditions, but that list has since been expanded. To be eligible for TCUP, you must be at least 18 years old (or have consent from a le- gal guardian), a permanent resident in the state and have at least one of several qualify- ing conditions. Zamhariri regularly gets people in his store asking him how to get set up on TCUP. He often first explains what TCUP is and that there are a set of qualifying conditions. The store even has a little card listing some of those qualifying conditions. They include post traumatic stress disor- der, muscle spasticity, endometriosis, neu- ropathy, migraines, autism spectrum disorder, seizures and epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other incurable neurode- generative diseases, as well as cancer, multi- ple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and more than 100 other conditions. How To Get on TCUP Once diagnosed with a qualifying condition, a patient can arrange for a telephone consulta- tion with a certified medical marijuana doctor. Zamhariri said Thrive will often set up the phone consultation to see if someone qualifies for the program in the first place. If they have a qualifying condition, they can have a phone appointment with the Thrive Apothecary physician. “We really service patients all across the state,” he said. The physician can confirm records for certain di- agnoses and even diagnose people for PTSD. “If they qualify for PTSD, then we can write the script there,” Zamhariri added. From there, Zamhariri said the doctor will set the patient up on a treatment plan, connect them with either Texas Original or Good Blend medical marijuana products and di- rect them to pick-up locations across the state. The doctor will also register the pa- tient with the Compassionate Use Registry of Texas, which allows the prescriptions to be filled. “There’s just a bunch of different steps that patients have to take,” Zamhariri said. “It’s just all about guiding people from point A to point B.” Filling the prescription is as simple as visiting any dispensary in the state or their pick-up locations. There are pick-up loca- tions throughout North Texas, including in Arlington, Addison, Fort Worth, Frisco and North Dallas. Improving the Program Zamhariri said there’s a need for more edu- cation about the program across the state. Expanding the program to allow for more qualifying conditions and lifting some of its restrictions would also be a step in the right direction, he noted. It’s fair to think that people who come from other states with medical marijuana programs might have trouble wrapping their heads around Texas’ distinct guidelines. “Texas really does it uniquely different than any other state,” Zamhariri said. “They really do treat it like it’s any other medication that a doctor’s writing a prescription for.” While TCUP is limited, in its scope Zam- hariri said it still helps a lot of people. “They [patients] just talk about how life-saving it is,” Zamhariri said. “That is verbatim what they say” ‘life saving.’” He added, “I know that cannabis is not a cure all. It doesn’t fix everything. However, it does bring a level of quality of life that most people have not experienced, espe- cially because they’ve gone through a lot of the pharmaceutical regimes and therapies and seen just so many different doctors, and a lot of things haven’t worked. Then, they come and try medical cannabis, and it’s liter- ally a revolutionary change in their lives. So, it is a blessing to do the work and to talk to patients and to help get them access wher- ever we can get them access.” Expanding the program to include chronic pain would be a big step, ac- Danielle Lirette There are more than 100 qualifying conditions for the Texas Compassionate Use Program, but it’s still limited. Unfair Park from p6 >> p10
