A Texas House committee has approved a Senate-passed bill that would prohibit cities from putting any citizen initiative on local ballots that would decriminalize marijuana or other controlled substances—as several localities have already done despite lawsuits from the state attorney general.
About a week after clearing the full Senate, members of the House State Affairs Committee advanced the legislation from Sen. Charles Perry (R) in a 9-6 vote on Wednesday. That same panel recently held a hearing on a House companion version that has not moved, indicating that lawmakers have opted to use the Senate bill as the vehicle to enact the ban on local cannabis reform.
Under the proposal, state law would be amended to say that local entities “may not place an item on a ballot, including a municipal charter or charter amendment, that would provide that the local entity will not fully enforce” state drug laws.
The latest version of the legislation, as previously amended in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, would also specifically bar localities from putting initiatives on the ballot that would contravene the state’s consumable hemp laws.
It would also require the attorney general to create a form for people to report violations of the law. And it’d expedite legal proceedings to challenge any city, mandating that an appellate court “render its final order or judgment with the least possible delay,” a legislative analysis says.
Cities found to be in violation of the law by placing a decriminalization initiative—or any measure that conflicts with state or federal drug laws—would be subject to a $25,000 civil fine for a first offense and a $50,000 fine for any subsequent offense.
“In the last few years several local governments have adopted policies and ordinances that are designed to decriminalize controlled substances or instruct law enforcement or prosecutors not to enforce our state drug laws,” Perry said in a statement of intent.
Hellbound and Down 