(a) The following persons may possess a controlled substance under this chapter without registering with the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration:
(1) an agent or employee of a manufacturer, distributor, analyzer, or dispenser of the controlled substance who is registered with the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration and acting in the usual course of business or employment;
(2) a common or contract carrier, a warehouseman, or an employee of a carrier or warehouseman whose possession of the controlled substance is in the usual course of business or employment;
(3) an ultimate user or a person in possession of the controlled substance under a lawful order of a practitioner or in lawful possession of the controlled substance if it is listed in Schedule V;
(4) an officer or employee of this state, another state, a political subdivision of this state or another state, or the United States who is lawfully engaged in the enforcement of a law relating to a controlled substance or drug or to a customs law and authorized to possess the controlled substance in the discharge of the person's official duties;
(5) if the substance is tetrahydrocannabinol or one of its derivatives:
(A) a Department of State Health Services official, a medical school researcher, or a research program participant possessing the substance as authorized under Subchapter G; or
(B) a practitioner or an ultimate user possessing the substance as a participant in a federally approved therapeutic research program that the commissioner has reviewed and found, in writing, to contain a medically responsible research protocol; or
(6) a dispensing organization licensed under Chapter 487 that possesses low-THC cannabis.
(b) Repealed by Acts 2015, 84th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1268 , Sec. 25(1), eff. September 1, 2016.