250,000 Texans Voted to Decriminalize Marijuana, So Why Are Politicians Trying To Override Them? (Op-Ed)
From toxifillers.com with love
“Instead of respecting the will of the voters, politicians in this state are doing everything they can to overturn these democratically elected policies.”
By Catina Voellinger, Ground Game Texas
As the executive director of Ground Game Texas, I lead a team organizing working-class Texans to pass movement-driven local policies at the ballot box. In a state where our elected officials are openly hostile to justice, and voter suppression is rampant, we take the fight directly to the people. And the people are showing up.
Through our local campaigns, we’ve gathered hundreds of thousands of petition signatures and earned a quarter of a million votes to decriminalize marijuana across Texas—from Austin to Killeen, Lockhart to Dallas. In a state with low voter turnout, marijuana decriminalization has earned a supermajority of the vote in every city, and over-performed compared to the rest of the ballot. But instead of respecting the will of the voters, politicians in this state are doing everything they can to overturn these democratically elected policies.
We are fighting locally, fighting statewide, and fighting crony courts. Last year in Lockhart, the city attorney tried to split our single policy into 13 separate ballot items to bury it in bureaucracy. We stopped them. A state appeals court just upheld a lawsuit designed to stop our cities from implementing our marijuana decriminalization. And at the legislature, five separate bills were introduced this session to gut local control and block citizens from changing the law through ballot initiatives.
This is about more than plants with healing properties. It’s about power. It’s about democracy. And it’s all connected.
The war on drugs isn’t a failed policy—it’s a successful tool of oppression. A tool used to criminalize poverty. A tool used to lock Black and Brown Texans into cycles of incarceration. A tool used to destabilize families, punish veterans and disabled people and make survival a crime.
And when we rise up to change those laws, the people in power rewrite the rules to keep control. That’s not new. It’s a familiar playbook.
From Jim Crow poll taxes to modern-day gerrymandering and felony disenfranchisement, this country has always created new systems to block the people most impacted by oppression from changing it. What’s happening in Texas right now is just the latest chapter.
Let’s be clear: The issue isn’t that Texans don’t care. The issue is that the system was designed to keep most Texans out.
Only about 25 percent of eligible Texans voted for our current leadership in the last midterm. That means 75 percent didn’t choose the people currently in power. Half of Texans don’t vote—not because they’re apathetic, but because the system was built to exhaust them, confuse them and convince them their voices don’t matter.
That’s by design. Because if we all voted, everything would change.
This is a “let them eat cake” moment. While elites argue over bathroom bills and book lists, the rest of us are fighting to stay housed, stay fed and stay free. And just like the moments that sparked revolutions before, we need to wake up to the truth: We deserve more.
We deserve a Texas where dignity isn’t up for debate. Where policy is rooted in care, not punishment. Where liberation isn’t treated like a fringe demand, but the foundation of a better future.
Yes, we must acknowledge our full history—how this land was taken, how systems were built to oppress and how violence shaped the present. But we also carry a different truth: that people are capable of transformation. That Texans, for all our contradictions, are kind, resourceful and brave.
We are not defined by the people who currently represent us.
We are defined by what we choose to build next.
Texas often gets painted with one brush—written off as hopeless, backward and too far gone. But the truth is, Texans have been organizing through storms, budget cuts, book bans and police intimidation for decades. We’ve done it without national attention, without big checks and without permission. Not just for ourselves, but for the future we believe is still possible.
So if you’re reading this from outside Texas—maybe feeling like all of this is new or extreme—know this: These tactics were tested here first. The blueprint for suppressing votes, criminalizing poverty and undermining democracy was drafted in states like Texas and exported nationwide.
But so was the resistance.
We need each other. We need to stop normalizing fascist behavior just because it’s wrapped in procedure or policy. We need to speak up when something is wrong. We need to reject the lie that this level of cruelty and control is just “how it is.”
It’s not.
And the people closest to the pain are already leading the way toward something better.
So don’t look away. Don’t write us off. And don’t wait for permission to act.
If you believe in democracy, in dignity and in the idea that power should come from the people—then join us. Follow our work. Share our stories. Support the organizers on the ground who are building a future rooted in justice, not fear.
Because this movement isn’t just about Texas. It’s about all of us.
We need you to fight alongside us—because none of us are truly free until all of us are.
Catina Voellinger is the executive director of Ground Game Texas, a grassroots advocacy organization supporting progressive causes.
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