Activists in San Marcos, Texas have launched a campaign to put marijuana decriminalization on the local ballot in 2022.<\/p>\n
The goal is to remove all municipal criminal penalties for simple cannabis possession, building on other criminal justice reforms the group has advanced such as establishing a public defender\u2019s office in Hays County.<\/p>\n
Advocates with Mano Amiga say they will formally begin the petition process in spring of next year. The text of the proposed initiative is not yet available.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt is well past time that we follow the footsteps of many cities and states in the United States to not criminalize possession of cannabis,\u201d Eric Martinez, policy director for Mano Amiga, told<\/a> KUT.<\/p>\n The group will need to turn in valid signatures from at least 10 percent of registered voters in order to place the marijuana reform on the ballot.<\/p>\n Just to the north of San Marcos, a separate campaign attempted to put cannabis decriminalization on Austin\u2019s ballot this November<\/a>, but activists have since shifted their strategy toward putting the measure in front of voters on the May 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n Mike Siegel, the co-founder of Ground Game Texas, which is behind the Austin effort, told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview that the group has so far collected about 30,000 signatures. Looking ahead, it plans to target between six and 12 additional cities for cannabis reform during the November 2022 election.<\/p>\n Both Austin and Dallas have already independently enacted law enforcement policy changes aimed at reducing arrests for marijuana-related offenses by issuing citations and summons.<\/p>\n There is no statewide, citizen-led initiative process that would enable advocates to put an issue like decriminalization or legalization on the Texas ballot. But at the local level, there are limited cases where activists can leverage home rule laws that allow for policy changes.<\/p>\n A strong majority of Texans back even broader reform, according to recent polling. Sixty percent of voters in the state\u00a0support making cannabis legal \u201cfor any use,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0signaling that local initiatives for more modest proposals like decriminalization will likely prevail where they qualify for local ballots.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s legislative session in Texas saw numerous drug policy proposals advance, with bills to expand the state\u2019s medical cannabis program<\/a>\u00a0and require a study into\u00a0the therapeutic potential of certain psychedelics<\/a>\u00a0for military veterans having been enacted.<\/p>\n Advocates remain disappointed, however, that lawmakers were\u00a0unable to pass more expansive cannabis bills<\/a>\u2014including a decriminalization proposal that cleared the House but saw no action in the Senate.<\/p>\n The\u00a0House approved a cannabis decriminalization bill<\/a>\u00a0in 2019,\u00a0but it did not advance<\/a>\u00a0in the Senate that session.<\/p>\n San Marcos is just one of numerous jurisdictions where activists hope to see cannabis reform advance through the ballot next year.<\/p>\n Nebraska marijuana activists announced last week that they have turned in a pair of<\/a> complementary initiatives to legalize medical cannabis<\/a>\u00a0that they hope to place on the state\u2019s 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n Ohio activists recently cleared a final hurdle to begin collecting signatures for a\u00a02022 ballot initiative to legalize marijuana<\/a>\u00a0in the state.<\/p>\n Missouri voters may see a\u00a0multiple marijuana initiatives on the state\u2019s ballot next year<\/a>, with a new group filing an adult-use legalization proposal late last month that could compete with\u00a0separate reform measures that are already in the works<\/a>.<\/p>\n Arkansas advocates are collecting signatures to\u00a0place adult-use marijuana legalization on the ballot<\/a>.<\/p>\n Activists in Idaho are working to advance separate measures to legalize possession of recreational marijuana and to create a system of legal medical cannabis sales. State officials recently\u00a0cleared activists to begin collecting signatures<\/a>\u00a0for a revised initiative to legalize possession of marijuana that they hope to place before voters on the 2022 ballot. Meanwhile, a separate\u00a0campaign to legalize medical cannabis in the state<\/a>\u00a0is also underway, with advocates actively collecting signatures to qualify that measure for next year\u2019s ballot.<\/p>\n Maryland\u2019s House speaker has pledged that lawmakers will pass legislation to\u00a0put the question of marijuana legalization before voters<\/a> as a referendum on the 2022 ballot. She\u2019s formed a cannabis working group to assess the best way to structure the reform, and that group met for the first time last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n After a House-passed bill to\u00a0legalize marijuana in North Dakota was\u00a0rejected by the Senate in March<\/a>, some senators hatched a plan to\u00a0advance the issue by referring it to voters on the 2022 ballot<\/a>. While their resolution advanced through a key committee, the full Senate blocked it. However, activists with the group\u00a0North Dakota Cannabis Caucus are collecting signatures<\/a>\u00a0to qualify a constitutional amendment to legalize cannabis for the 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n Oklahoma advocates\u00a0are pushing two separate initiatives<\/a>\u00a0to legalize marijuana for adult use and overhaul the state\u2019s existing medical cannabis program.<\/p>\n South Dakota activists recently\u00a0filed four separate legalization measures<\/a>\u00a0with the state Legislative Research Council\u2014the first step toward putting the issue before voters next year if the state Supreme Court upholds a lower court ruling that overturned the\u00a0legal cannabis measure that voters approved<\/a>\u00a0last November.<\/p>\n Wyoming\u2019s attorney general recently issued ballot summaries for proposed initiatives to\u00a0legalize medical marijuana and decriminalize cannabis possession<\/a>, freeing up activists to collect signatures to qualify for the 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n House Could Vote On Psychedelics Research For Military And Marijuana Banking As Part Of Defense Bill<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Texas Activists Launch Campaign To Put Marijuana Decriminalization On San Marcos\u2019s 2022 Ballot<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Activists in San Marcos, Texas have launched a campaign to put marijuana decriminalization on the local ballot in 2022. The goal is to remove all municipal criminal penalties for simple cannabis possession, building on other criminal justice reforms the group has advanced such as establishing a public defender\u2019s office inContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49959"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49960,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49959\/revisions\/49960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\nRead More: Texas Activists Launch Campaign To Put Marijuana Decriminalization On San Marcos\u2019s 2022 Ballot<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"