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Voters in three Texas cities approved local marijuana decriminalization ballot initiatives on Tuesday, including in Dallas, the third largest city by population in the state.<\/p>\n
Ground Game Texas\u2014the campaign that\u2019s spearheaded the measures in Dallas, Lockhart and Bastrop\u2014has been urging supporters to show up to the polls so that the jurisdictions become the latest to enact the reform. And advocates succeeded to that end.<\/p>\n
Activists have previously successfully enacted decriminalization in about a half-dozen Texas cities in recent years.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s cannabis reform passed in Texas on Tuesday:<\/strong><\/p>\n
Results tracker sponsored by In Dallas, local lawmakers formally put the marijuana decriminalization initiative on the ballot in August after activists turned in sufficient petitions for the reform. Now that voters have approved the proposal, possession of up to four ounces of marijuana will be decriminalized in the city.<\/p>\n Cannabis icon and music legend Willie Nelson recently urged Dallas voters to pass the marijuana measure<\/a>.<\/p>\n Prop R has passed! Together, we\u2019ve taken a big step toward justice, freedom, and a better future for our community. This is more than a victory for marijuana decriminalization\u2014it\u2019s a win for the people of Dallas! \u2014 GroundGameTX (@GroundGameTX) November 6, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Prior to the August vote on ballot placement, some members of the Dallas City Council had expressed interest in streamlining the process of decriminalizing cannabis by acting legislatively,\u00a0but plans to introduce the proposal at a hearing in June<\/a>\u00a0did not materialize, leaving the matter to voters.<\/p>\n What the initiative will do:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Results tracker sponsored by Legislators in Lockhart officially placed the cannabis reform on the ballot in July<\/a>\u2014reaching a compromise with activists after the city attorney attempted to revise the proposal in a way that supporters worried would face legal challenges and potentially upend the reform.<\/p>\n What the initiative will do:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Results tracker sponsored by City officials certified in July that a proposed charter amendment campaign secured enough voter signatures to put cannabis decriminalization on the municipality\u2019s November 5 ballot<\/a>.<\/p>\n What the initiative will do:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Prior local and state reform efforts in Texas:<\/strong><\/p>\n Numerous marijuana decriminalization measures have already been enacted in cities across the Lone Star state in recent years, including\u00a0Austin<\/a>,\u00a0Denton, Elgin, Harker Heights, Killeen and San Marcos<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advocates also scored another win in San Marcos in July after a Texas district judge\u00a0dismissed a lawsuit from the state\u2019s Republican attorney general<\/a>\u00a0that sought to overturn a local decriminalization ordinance in that city.<\/p>\n Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed a lawsuit in January\u00a0challenging local decriminalization laws that were enacted in five cities<\/a>: Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin and Denton. A\u00a0different district judge had overturned the suit in Austin<\/a>\u00a0in June.<\/p>\n Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has separately lashed out against the municipal cannabis reform efforts.<\/p>\n \u201cLocal communities such as towns, cities and counties, they don\u2019t have the authority to override state law,\u201d\u00a0the governor said in May<\/a>\u00a0\u201cIf they want to see a different law passed, they need to work with their legislators. Let\u2019s legislate to work to make sure that the state, as a state, will pass some of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n He said it would lead to \u201cchaos\u201d and create an \u201cunworkable system\u201d for voters in individual cities to be \u201cpicking and choosing\u201d the laws they want abide by under state statute.<\/p>\n Abbott has previously said that he\u00a0doesn\u2019t believe people should be in jail over marijuana possession<\/a>\u2014although he mistakenly suggested at the time that Texas had already enacted a decriminalization policy to that end.<\/p>\n Paxton had used more inflammatory rhetoric when his office announced that it was suing the five cities over their local laws decriminalizing marijuana, vowing to overrule the \u201canarchy\u201d of \u201cpro-crime extremists\u201d who advocated for the reform.<\/p>\n Shortly after voters in Harker Heights approved their measure, the city council overturned the ordinance over concerns that it conflicted with state law. But\u00a0activists collected signatures for another initiative<\/a>\u00a0and successfully repealed the repeal last year\u2014though officials have still refused to move forward with implementing the will of voters.<\/p>\n Last year, Ground Game released a report that\u00a0looked at the impacts of the marijuana reform laws<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n Another\u00a0cannabis decriminalization measure that went before voters in San Antonio<\/a>\u00a0last year was overwhelmingly defeated, but that proposal also included unrelated provisions to prevent enforcement of abortion restrictions.<\/p>\n At the state-level last year, the Texas House of Representatives passed a series of bills to decriminalize marijuana, facilitate expungements and allow chronic pain patients to access medical cannabis as an opioid alternative. But\u00a0they ultimately stalled out in the Senate<\/a>, which has been a theme for cannabis reform measures in the conservative legislature over several sessions.<\/p>\n The House\u00a0passed similar cannabis decriminalization proposals<\/a>\u00a0during the past two legislative sessions, in 2021 and 2019.<\/p>\n Separately, a Texas Democratic senator brought the issue of marijuana legalization to the Senate floor last May, seeking to attach to an unrelated resolution an amendment that would\u2019ve allowed Texans to vote on ending prohibition at the ballot box. But\u00a0the symbolic proposal was ultimately shut down<\/a>. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) agreed to another member\u2019s point of order, deeming the cannabis amendment not germane to the broader legislation.<\/p>\n A strong\u00a0bipartisan majority of Texas voters support decriminalizing marijuana<\/a>, and more people say they want to reduce restrictions on cannabis than say the same about guns, gambling and abortion in the Lone Star state, according to a poll released in September.<\/p>\n The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) separately released a recent report advising that the state\u2019s limited medical marijuana system \u201cdoes not provide for statewide access for patients\u201d and recommending that the number of licensed dispensaries be significantly expanded<\/a>\u00a0to meet demand.<\/p>\n Live 2024 Marijuana Election Results<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Texas Voters In Dallas, Lockhart And Bastrop Approve Local Marijuana Decriminalization Initiatives At The Ballot<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Voters in three Texas cities approved local marijuana decriminalization ballot initiatives on Tuesday, including in Dallas, the third largest city by population in the state. Ground Game Texas\u2014the campaign that\u2019s spearheaded the measures in Dallas, Lockhart and Bastrop\u2014has been urging supporters to show up to the polls so that theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":78881,"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\/78880"}],"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=78880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78882,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78880\/revisions\/78882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Dallas<\/h3>\n
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\nRead More: Texas Voters In Dallas, Lockhart And Bastrop Approve Local Marijuana Decriminalization Initiatives At The Ballot<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"