8 December 11 -17, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents working session. Most members agreed that the issue deserved a working session before a vote could be held. “I will take the time to get there with the town’s input, residents’ input, and the peo- ple that aren’t here tonight. There are thou- sands of people that are not here represented tonight, that are equally tax- based, and they should have a say in this,” he said. The council rejected his motion, instead delaying the decision until an undetermined time after the May general election, when other cities’ constituents have made their choice. It’s unclear whether Addison can add the measure to their November election, but member cities must renew their con- tracts every six years. Therefore, if Addison chooses to wait, another opportunity to dis- solve their deal would not arise again until 2032 . Beyond the Horseshoe The DART exodus has created panic for the transit system, and its leaders and proponents have fought a hard battle to keep it afloat. The special council session was packed with an- gry Addison residents and workers, as well as several of DART’s most prominent members. But it wasn’t just DART stakeholders, or even the daily riders, who expressed their discon- tent with Addison’s surprising and quick move. Sharon Hirsch, a longtime Plano resi- dent, retired in Addison. She can drive, but she also likes being close to DART. “Just a few weeks ago, I learned that the Plano City Council voted to hold an election regarding the fate of dark in their community,” said Hirsch. “As a result, I sent listings from my condo building to my Plano friends, inviting them to move to Addison, where we were just a couple of blocks from the brand new Silver Line. I was so surprised and disappointed when I received a meeting notification that you were considering doing the same.” For years, Plano led the charge in getting out of their deal with DART, but as other cit- ies join the fight, the system’s higher-ups have joined the frontlines. Newly minted DART Chair Randall Bryant spoke to the council, urging them to hold on to hope un- der his new leadership. “DART has delivered on our promises. Will you deliver to your residents?” Bryant said, “… You’ll hear questions about what comes next for Addison and its public tran- sit. It’s a fair question to ask, and one that I, as a DART board member or the staff that’s present here tonight, cannot answer. What I can tell you is that… we will continue to ne- gotiate in good faith, and this city and all of our cities that are within the DART system currently have to provide transportation so- lutions that best fit the needs of our riders.” Gary Slagel, who represents Addison on the DART board and formerly served as the chair, noted the pressure to follow the herd, but emphasized that if Addison were to end its contract with DART, the newly opened Silver Line, a $2 billion project that runs from Plano all the way to Irving, would run straight through the city without stopping. “We’re in a difficult situation because of the cities that impact you to the north,” he said. “That’s not fair… We’ve got to work as a region together to find solutions that are more than just, ‘let’s get rid of DART,’ be- cause that’s a pretty easy target. Let’s really try to solve the problem, because with the growth we have coming forward in the re- gion, we need transit.” ▼ MARIJUANA TAKE WHAT WE CAN GET TWO MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES COULD BE LICENSED IN NORTH TEXAS SOON. BY ALYSSA FIELDS A fter 10 years of running a state-regu- lated medical marijuana program, the Texas Compassionate Use Pro- gram (TCUP), with only three licensed dis- pensaries, the state preliminarily announced nine new dispensaries pending full licensing. Since its initial approval in 2015, the state has been gradually expanding the TCUP program to include a variety of diseases. By 2024, there were nine approved conditions that qualified for TCUP registration; how- ever, this year, in the broadest expansion, lawmakers added chronic pain, among other conditions, such as traumatic brain injuries. They also made a legislative commitment to increasing the number of licensed dispensa- ries, quintupling the count by April 2026. The nine companies announced by the Department of Public Safety (DPS) have been issued conditional licenses, but they will not be allowed to cultivate, manufac- ture, distribute or sell cannabis until receiv- ing formal approval from the state following additional evaluations. “As a holder of a conditional license, the licensee is subject to the department’s ongo- ing due diligence evaluation,” Texas DPS said in a Dec. 1 statement. “The announce- ment of these nine businesses today does not guarantee that these businesses will be issued final TCUP licenses to operate as dis- pensing organizations.” The nine companies, two of which are in North Texas — Texas Patient Access and Lon- estar Compassionate Care Group — were cho- sen from an application period that closed in 2023. KVUE reported that the state received 132 applications during the window. A second batch of three licenses will be announced in April, chosen from a 30-day application that ran from August to September 2025. When residents were first allowed to reg- ister in the Compassionate Use Registry in 2017, there were only 12 patients; by the end of 2023, following significant expansions, the number had grown to 72,960. In August 2025, there were 123,308 registered patients qualified to receive a medical marijuana pre- scription. When chronic pain became an ap- plicable condition in September, an additional 4,000 patients registered. The number of patients registered is not reflective of the number of patients actually receiving prescriptions. A 2024 report from the DPS counted 29,000 unique patients ful- filling a medical marijuana prescription in the 2023 fiscal year, marking a 135% growth over the prior year. Though only about 40% of patients registered in TCUP fulfill their prescriptions, the amount is growing much faster than the number of patients added to the registry annually. To match the pace of demand growth, the state needed to increase the number of li- censed dispensaries. Although the latest law greatly increased accessibility to medical marijuana for thousands of patients across the state, it did not streamline the licensing process, which remains exorbitantly expen- sive and lengthy. While being a member of the TCUP program became easier for pa- tients, it did not become any easier for the dispensaries hoping to supply. The Licensing Process The initial application requires a non-refund- able application fee of $7,356. If a dispensary is issued a license, which expires after two years, it is then required to pay an additional $488,520 fee. License renewal costs $318,511 every two years thereafter. Texas has some of the highest dispensary-associated fees in the country, creating a high barrier to entry for prospective companies. The companies that do have proper li- censing have a lot of control over the indus- try by nature and have the freedom to set prices wherever they so choose. Because cannabis remains a Schedule I substance, as categorized by the Federal Drug Admin- istration, insurance typically does not cover the costs of medical marijuana. Heather Fazio, director of the Texas Can- nabis Policy Center, had hoped the state would look to increase competition which would likely lower the costs for consumers. A variety of products sold by the three licensed dispensaries can range in price from $60 - $150, depending on the formulation and po- tency. Medical marijuana in smokable flower form is not legal. All products must be 1% THC by weight, which is a higher potency than legalized market THC products that are limited to 0.3% concentration. “Hopefully, when rulemaking is hap- pening in October, they will bring down the licensing fees to be more reasonable for these companies,” she said to the Ob- server in June. “... We hope that some change, the changes that have happened in the legislature, will lead to some changes in the regulatory infrastructure and therefore make this program more ac- cessible for patients.” The state did not lower any of the fees. But they did allow for 2023 applicants to withdraw their applications and receive a refund by August 2025. The other six companies approved for a conditional license are evenly scattered across the state. In 2015, Texas lawmakers, with the will- ing support of Gov. Greg Abbott, passed a strictly limited medical marijuana program that only accepted patients with a specific antiseizure medication-resistant form of epilepsy. It took the state two years to es- tablish the program with licensed dispen- saries. In October of 2017, the first patients were added to the TCUP database. Almost every session since then, the program has been expanded to include a variety of con- ditions, and the number of registered pa- tients has grown tenfold. While GOP leaders seem unshakeable on legalizing recreational marijuana, the TCUP program has grown in popularity, coming close to being bipartisan. The latest bill to expand the program soared through the House with little resistance and unani- mously cleared the Senate, even as a strictly partisan THC ban more prolifically strug- gled through the chambers. The potential ban was vetoed at the last minute by Abbott, resulting in a showdown between the governor and Lt. Gov. Dan Pat- rick. Throughout the session, Patrick and his Republican colleagues pushed the easy and wide expansion of the TCUP program as a replacement for the thousands of recre- ational THC consumers. “The TCUP program, he signed that bill, that’s worthless now,” Patrick said at a press conference after the veto. “Here we pass maybe the best TCUP program, Texas for Compassionate Use, to address those with PTSD, cancer, Crohn’s disease, we add it. Who’s gonna go there now when they can go to any smoke shop and get what they want?” ▼ ABORTION ‘CRUEL AND HARMFUL’ ABORTION LAW IN TEXAS GOES INTO EFFECT. BY ALYSSA FIELDS S ince the Heartbeat Act went into ef- fect in 2021, effectively banning abortion after six weeks of preg- nancy, the state has continued to further re- Unfair Park from p6 Gordon Shattles/DART A majority of the eliminated bus routes service the suburbs.
