Texas Lawmakers Take Up Another Bill To Block Voters From Locally Decriminalizing Marijuana
From toxifillers.com with love
A Texas House committee took up a bill on Friday that would prohibit cities from putting citizen initiatives on local ballots to decriminalize marijuana or other controlled substances.
Just two days after a Senate version of the measure cleared that full chamber, the House State Affairs Committee held a hearing on the companion version from Rep. Jeff Leach (R), with proposed amendments to align both bills.
In the last few years, members, several local governments across the state of Texas have adopted policies and ordinances that are designed to decriminalize controlled substances or instruct law enforcement or prosecutors not to enforce our state’s drug laws,” Leach said, noting that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has filed lawsuits against multiple municipalities where the local reform was enacted.
“Although these lawsuits are still pending, there’s a growing trend across our state for local governments to adopt these policies, and this bill is intended to address that,” he said.
Under the proposal as introduced, state law would be amended to say that local entities “may not hold an election for voter approval of a proposed charter or an amendment to a charter that violates” state drug laws.
They also could not “adopt, publish, enforce, repeal, maintain, or amend an ordinance, order, policy, rule, or regulation” that contravenes state statute on controlled substances.
Leach described amendments included in a substitute version of the bill that seem intended to match what the Senate passed on Wednesday.
For example, it removes language that would have required local compliance with federal drug laws, which the sponsor said was necessary “because federal law is extremely broad, and the state is allowed and empowered to regulate drugs—and often does do so more strictly than the federal government.”
Another change “requires local governments to comply with state consumable hemp product laws,” he said.
“Members, it’s of vital importance that the laws of the state—the laws that this legislature considers and deliberates, ultimately votes into law with—that they’re complied with and that they’re enforced, regardless of whether or not one may agree or disagree with what those laws are,” Leach said.
“A low-level marijuana charge may not seem like that big of an issue,” he said. “But once the precedent is set, the concern remains as to what other laws that we pass may be ignored by local governments.”
The bill would also require the attorney general to create a form for people to report violations of the law. And it’d expedite legal proceedings to challenge any city, mandating that an appellate court “render its final order or judgment with the least possible delay.”
Cities found to be in violation of the law by placing a decriminalization initiative—or any measure that conflicts with state or federal drug laws—would be subject to a $25,000 civil fine for a first offense and a $50,000 fine for any subsequent offense.
It’s not clear why, if the attorney general’s lawsuits assert that local decriminalization laws are already prohibited under statute, the proposed amendments to the code are necessary. But the legislation does appear to escalate enforcement and penalties.
While several courts have previously upheld local cannabis decriminalization laws, an appellate court comprised of three conservative justices appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has recently pushed back against two of those rulings, siding with the state in its legal challenge to the marijuana policy in Austin and San Marcos.
Meanwhile, despite the ongoing litigation and advancement of the House and Senate bills, 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.
Abbott 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.
—
Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.
Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.
—
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).
Majority Of Pennsylvanians Support Marijuana Legalization, With Opposition Slashed In Half Over Last Decade, Poll Finds
The post Texas Lawmakers Take Up Another Bill To Block Voters From Locally Decriminalizing Marijuana appeared first on Marijuana Moment.