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Texas activists have turned in what they say are enough signatures to place a measure on the Harker Heights ballot to reverse a City Council move that repealed a voter-approved marijuana decriminalization initiative.<\/p>\n
Ground Game Texas, which was behind a number of successful local decriminalization measures that passed this year, is also criticizing an outgoing district attorney\u2019s request that the state attorney general issue an opinion on a separate reform initiative that voters approved overwhelmingly in San Marcos.<\/p>\n
In Harker Heights, the City Council voted to repeal the decriminalization initiative just weeks after it was approved by voters on the November ballot, prompting activists to launch a signature drive<\/a> to put the issue back in voters\u2019 hands.<\/p>\n In order to secure placement on the city\u2019s May 2023 ballot to overturn the ordinance, activists needed to collect 348 valid signatures from Harker Heights residents. At a press conference on Monday, Ground Game Texas said they gathered more than 600 signatures that they\u2019ve turned in to city officials.<\/p>\n \u201cBy voting to repeal Prop A, the Harker Heights City Council sent a clear message to their constituents that they don\u2019t respect the will of the voters or the democracy they participate in,\u201d Julie Oliver, executive director of Ground Game Texas, said<\/a> in a press release. \u201cThese antidemocratic politicians are trying to throw away the votes of more than 5,000 Harker Heights residents\u2014but we won\u2019t let them. With this new referendum, Ground Game Texas will ensure the will of voters isn\u2019t trampled on by their local elected officials.\u201d<\/p>\n A city official previously said that when they receive petitions for the referendum to overturn the ordinance, they would \u201cprocess the document as identified within our charter.\u201d<\/p>\n Ground Game Texas saw several success in last month\u2019s election, with decriminalization passing locally in Denton, Elgin and Killeen, in addition to Harker Heights and San Marcos.<\/p>\n While only Harker Heights has moved to repeal the initiative altogether so far, activists are also closely monitoring a recent action by Hays County Criminal District Attorney Wes Mau, who submitted a request for a legal opinion on the San Marcos decriminalization measure from state Attorney General Ken Paxton.<\/p>\n \u201cBased on the ordinance\u2019s enactment, the following questions are raised,\u201d the district attorney\u2019s letter says. \u201cFirst, is the ordinance preempted by the laws of the State of Texas criminalizing the possession and delivery of marijuana? Second, if the ordinance is void due to preemption, does it expose the city to potential legal action, particularly with respect to potential discipline of San Marcos police officers unwilling to comply with an unlawful ordinance?\u201d<\/p>\n Ground Game Texas said<\/a> that the request is \u201ca disappointing action from a lame duck District Attorney hoping to overturn the will of voters.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are monitoring this request closely, and are prepared to take action if the Attorney General intervenes,\u201d Mike Siegel, the organization\u2019s general counsel, said on Saturday. \u201cWe expect the elected officials in San Marcos to respect the will of the voters who elected them, and look forward to the people of Hays County being represented by a new District Attorney who will do just that.\u201d<\/p>\n We did it \u2013 again. Harker Heights voters overwhelmingly passed Prop A Nov 8th but City Council repealed it two weeks later so we fought back and collected over 600 signatures in less than two weeks time to meet a deadline for a referendum. We turned those signatures in today. pic.twitter.com\/YQtTohDXQ8<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 GroundGameTX (@GroundGameTX) December 13, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Meanwhile, in Killeen, the\u00a0City 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 They lifted that pause and officially approved the ordinance last week. But the local lawmakers amended it to remove a provision that would prohibit police from using the smell of cannabis as probable cause for a search or seizure.<\/p>\n In Denton, local officials didn\u2019t pursue an outright repeal of the reform measure that voters approved there, but they did initially challenge 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 Local lawmakers in that city have since voted 6-0 to accept the results of the election.<\/p>\n So far, the other Texas city that passed decriminalization measures this month\u2014Elgin\u2014has not raised legislative or legal objections. But advocates aren\u2019t planning to cede any of the victories.<\/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>\u00a0this 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 in October 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,\u00a0has 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 USDA Delays Enforcement Of Rule Requiring Hemp To Be Tested By DEA-Registered Labs Due To \u2018Inadequate\u2019 Capacity<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Texas Activists Turn In Signatures To Put Marijuana Decriminalization Back In Voters\u2019 Hands After City Council Repeal<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Texas activists have turned in what they say are enough signatures to place a measure on the Harker Heights ballot to reverse a City Council move that repealed a voter-approved marijuana decriminalization initiative. Ground Game Texas, which was behind a number of successful local decriminalization measures that passed this year,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":59281,"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\/59280"}],"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=59280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59282,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59280\/revisions\/59282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Texas Activists Turn In Signatures To Put Marijuana Decriminalization Back In Voters\u2019 Hands After City Council Repeal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"