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Texas officials in several cities have moved to overturn or undercut local marijuana decriminalization ordinances that voters overwhelmingly approved at the ballot<\/a> this month\u2014but activists aren\u2019t going down without a fight.<\/p>\n Five cities passed the decriminalization ballot measures with strong margins on November 8, but city councils and officials in at least three of those localities are facing criticism from advocates over their attempts to undermine the reforms. In Harker Heights, for example, the city council voted last week to repeal the ordinance altogether.<\/p>\n Ground Game Texas, the campaign that spearheaded the decriminalization ordinances, says it is planning to collect signatures for another local referendum to go before voters during Harker Heights\u2019s next election that would effectively repeal the repeal.<\/p>\n In Denton, meanwhile, local officials haven\u2019t pursued an outright repeal of the reform measure that voters approved there, but they have challenged key provisions, saying that the city isn\u2019t authorized to direct police to make the prescribed policy changes. However, the mayor and city manager have said that low-level cannabis offenses will continue to be treated as low law enforcement priorities.<\/p>\n The Killeen City Council decided to press pause on implementing the local voter-approved decriminalization ordinance, arguing that there are legal concerns that lawmakers need to sort through before potentially giving it their approval.<\/p>\n One councilmember, Jose Segarra, said that he took particular issue with provision of the reform measure preventing police from using the odor of marijuana alone as the basis for a search, and he suggested that the local government could amend the ordinance to eliminate that language.<\/p>\n So far, the two other Texas cities that passed decriminalization measures this month\u2014Elgin and San Marcos\u2014have not raised<\/a> legislative or legal objections. But advocates aren\u2019t planning to cede any of the victories.<\/p>\n Since the Harker Heights City Council has already approved a resolution to repeal the ordinance, there\u2019s particular urgency for advocates to take responsive action, which is shaping up to look like a secondary referendum for the May 2023 ballot.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything is in city charter,\u201d Louie Minor, a Bell County commissioner-elect who worked on the Harker Heights and Killeen cannabis decriminalization campaigns, told<\/a> The Killeen Daily Journal.\u00a0\u201cA referendum would mean going out and getting signatures. We have a very short time period, though. The citizens would vote on repealing the ordinance that repealed Proposition A.\u201d<\/p>\n In Denton, when local officials first suggested earlier this month that they weren\u2019t comfortable fully implementing the voter-approved cannabis decriminalization measure, Ground Game Texas pushed back by issuing a legal memo.<\/p>\n \u201cThe voters of Denton have spoken. By an overwhelming margin, they passed an initiative to prioritize scarce public safety initiatives for important needs that serve Denton, rather than wasteful enforcement of low-level marijuana offenses,\u201d Mike Siegel, a co-founder of the group, said<\/a>. \u201cCity staff do not have the authority to disregard election results and usurp the will of the voters. We hope and expect that officials in positions of public trust will fulfill the will of the voters they serve and ensure that Proposition B is duly enforced immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n The Denton City Council has since voted<\/a> 6-0 to accept the results of the election.<\/p>\n The reform measures might be new to the cities where lawmakers are raising concerns, but they\u2019re not without precedent in the Lone Star state. Austin voters, for example,\u00a0strongly approved a marijuana decriminalization measure<\/a> this past May\u2014and it doesn\u2019t appear that the city has grappled with any major legal battles over the modest policy change.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, San Antonio, the second largest Texas city by population, could\u00a0get the chance to locally decriminalize marijuana<\/a>\u00a0in May 2023 after activists announced last month that they were launching a signature drive for ballot placement.<\/p>\n While there\u2019s been a surge of local action on marijuana issues under home rule laws in Texas over recent years, statewide reform has generally stalled in the conservative legislature.<\/p>\n The\u00a0House approved a cannabis decriminalization bill<\/a>\u00a0in 2019,\u00a0but it did not advance<\/a>\u00a0in the Senate that session Lawmakers have since been\u00a0unable to pass additional expansive cannabis bills<\/a>\u00a0in recent sessions.<\/p>\n For his part, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said that\u00a0he doesn\u2019t believe people should be incarcerated<\/a>\u00a0over low-level marijuana possession. However, the governor incorrectly suggested that lawmakers have already adopted the policy statewide.<\/p>\n A poll released last year found that a strong majority of Texans\u2014including most Republicans\u2014support even broader reform to legalize marijuana<\/a>\u00a0for adult use. Another survey found that 60 percent of voters in the state\u00a0support making cannabis legal \u201cfor any use\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and about nine in ten voters think marijuana should be legalized for some purpose.<\/p>\n Additionally, a poll released in June\u00a0found that cannabis legalization is more popular in Texas<\/a>\u00a0than the state\u2019s top elected officials and President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) said in September that he will work to\u00a0enact criminal justice reform in the 2023 session<\/a>, and he again expressed support for lowering penalties for marijuana possession.<\/p>\n \u2014 Former U.S. Rep. Beto O\u2019Rourke (D), who was the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Texas this year, has long advocated for an end to marijuana prohibition<\/a>\u00a0and included the reform as a tenet of his campaign.\u00a0But he ultimately lost the race to Abbott.<\/p>\n There were some drug policy reforms that did advance in the legislature during last year\u2019s session, but not necessarily at the pace that advocates had hoped to see.<\/p>\n A bill to\u00a0expand the state\u2019s medical cannabis program<\/a>\u00a0and another to require a study into\u00a0the therapeutic potential of certain psychedelics<\/a>\u00a0for military veterans were enacted.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Texas Republican Party adopted a platform plank<\/a>\u00a0endorsing decriminalization of marijuana possession in 2018, but that was later rescinded.<\/p>\n Separately, the state Supreme Court\u00a0heard testimony in March<\/a>\u00a0in a case concerning the state\u2019s ban on manufacturing smokable hemp products\u2014the latest development in a drawn-out legal battle on the policy first proposed and challenged in 2020.<\/p>\n In San Antonio, activists will need to collect at least 20,000 valid signatures from registered voters by early January to qualify for the May 2023 ballot. The groups said they plan to submit a minimum of 35,000 signatures.<\/p>\n Colombian And Mexican Presidents Announce International Effort To Reshape Drug Policy, Condemning \u2018Failure\u2019 Of Prohibition<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<\/div>\n The post Texas Activists Fight Back After Local Lawmakers Undermine Voter-Approved Marijuana Decriminalization Measures<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Texas officials in several cities have moved to overturn or undercut local marijuana decriminalization ordinances that voters overwhelmingly approved at the ballot this month\u2014but activists aren\u2019t going down without a fight. Five cities passed the decriminalization ballot measures with strong margins on November 8, but city councils and officials inContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":58621,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58620"}],"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=58620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58622,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58620\/revisions\/58622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Texas Activists Fight Back After Local Lawmakers Undermine Voter-Approved Marijuana Decriminalization Measures<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"