Texas Court Blocks Marijuana Decriminalization Law In Austin, Restoring Police Authority To Make Arrests For Simple Possession
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A Texas appeals court has blocked a voter-approved marijuana decriminalization law from being implemented in Austin, temporarily restoring law enforcement’s authority to arrest people over low-level cannabis possession in the state’s capital city.
Nearly three years after Austin voters passed the reform initiative at the ballot, the state Fifteenth Court of Appeals sided with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) on Thursday in his lawsuit asserting that state law preempts local decriminalization ordinances.
While Travis County District Court Judge Jan Soifer rejected the initial challenge to Austin’s marijuana law last year, the appeals court—comprised of three conservative justices appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R)—has now overruled that decision. The case will now to go trial.
This is one of the latest setbacks for activists who’ve worked to enact local reforms as the state legislature continues to resist marijuana policy changes.
The same appellate court also recently sided with the state in its lawsuit challenging the city of San Marcus over the implementation of its local marijuana decriminalization law approved by voters.
“Consistent with City of San Marcos, we conclude that the ordinance in this case is also preempted by state law,” the court’s latest opinion says. “Accordingly, we hold that Appellees are not immune from the State’s suit. We also hold that the trial court abused its discretion in denying the State’s request for a temporary injunction enjoining enforcement of the ordinance.”
“The State is not seeking to compel the City’s law enforcement to make more arrests for possession of marijuana misdemeanor offenses. Rather, the State is challenging the validity and adoption of the Ordinance, which prohibits citations and arrests for possession of marijuana misdemeanor offenses, because it is preempted by state law. The State has an intrinsic right to enforce its own laws and, therefore, has standing to bring this suit.”
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Texas Senate approved a bill that would prohibit cities from putting any citizen initiative on local ballots that would decriminalize marijuana or other controlled substances.
Despite the ongoing litigation and Senate bill’s advancement, Texas activists have their targets set on yet another city, Kyle, where they hope put an initiative before voters to enact local marijuana reform at the ballot this coming November.
Advocates have also seen several courts rule in their favor amid the legal challenges.
For example, in February, a Texas judge has ruled that a cannabis decriminalization law approved by Dallas voters last year can continue to be implemented—denying a request from the state attorney general that sought to temporarily block the reform as a lawsuit proceeds.
This doesn’t mean the lawsuit from Paxton is dead altogether. But, at least for the time being, the judge has determined that the decriminalization policy can continue as the litigation unfolds.
Dallas Police Department had previously instructed officers to stop arresting or citing people for possession of up to four ounces of marijuana, in accordance with the voter-approved ballot initiative.
The governor has lashed out against the municipal cannabis reform efforts.
“Local communities such as towns, cities and counties, they don’t have the authority to override state law,” the governor said last May “If they want to see a different law passed, they need to work with their legislators. Let’s legislate to work to make sure that the state, as a state, will pass some of the law.”
He said it would lead to “chaos” and create an “unworkable system” for voters in individual cities to be “picking and choosing” the laws they want abide by under state statute.
Abbott has previously said that he doesn’t believe people should be in jail over marijuana possession—although he mistakenly suggested at the time that Texas had already enacted a decriminalization policy to that end.
In 2023, Ground Game released a report that looked at the impacts of the marijuana reform laws. It found that the measures will keep hundreds of people out of jail, even as they have led to blowback from law enforcement in some cities. The initiatives have also driven voter turnout by being on the ballot, the report said.
Another cannabis decriminalization measure that went before voters in San Antonio that year was overwhelmingly defeated, but that proposal also included unrelated provisions to prevent enforcement of abortion restrictions.
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Meanwhile, late last month the Texas Senate approved a bill that cannabis advocates and stakeholders said would effectively eradicate the state’s hemp industry, prohibiting consumable products derived from the plant that contain any amount of THC.
That, as well as another measure from Rep. Joe Moody (D) to decriminalize cannabis statewide, is one of the latest of nearly two dozen cannabis-related proposals filed so far in Texas for the current legislative session. Various other measures would legalize adult-use marijuana, remove criminal penalties for cannabis possession and adjust the state’s existing medical marijuana laws, among others.
Moody sponsored a similar marijuana decriminalization bill last legislative session, in 2023. That measure, HB 218, passed the House on an 87–59 vote but later died in a Senate committee.
The House had already passed earlier cannabis decriminalization proposals during the two previous legislative sessions, in 2021 and 2019. But the efforts have consistently stalled in the Senate amid opposition from the lieutenant governor.
Separately, a Texas House committee took testimony on Monday about two bills designed to prepare the state to provide swift access to therapeutic psychedelics in the event of approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Read the appellate court’s ruling in the Austin cannabis decriminalization case below:
Colorado Lawmakers Approve Bill To Let Governor Grant Mass Pardons For Psychedelics-Related Convictions
Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.
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