Tag: marijuana decriminalization

Texas Senate Passes Bill To Ban Cities From Putting Marijuana Decriminalization Initiatives On Local Ballots

The Texas Senate has approved a 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.

The legislation from Sen. Charles Perry (R) is responsive to those local reforms, and it passed the chamber on Wednesday in a 23-8 vote. It now heads to the House of Representatives.

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 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.

“In 2024, the attorney general launched lawsuits against multiple cities for adopting non-prosecution policies that violate Texas laws concerning marijuana possession and distribution,” he said. “Although these lawsuits are still pending, this is a growing trend across our state.”

It’s not clear why, if the attorney general’s lawsuits assert that local decriminalization laws are already prohibited under statute, the proposed amendments to the code are necessary. But the legislation does appear to escalate enforcement and penalties.

A House companion version of the bill, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Leach (R), is scheduled for a hearing in the State Affairs Committee on Friday.

The Senate vote comes about a week after a Texas appellate court sided with the state in its lawsuit challenging the city of San Marcus over the implementation of a local marijuana decriminalization law approved by voters.

That marked a setback for activists who’ve led the charge to enact local marijuana policy changes through the ballot, many of which have been contested by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R).

Meanwhile, despite the ongoing litigation and Senate bill’s advancement, Texas activists have their targets set on yet another city, Kyle, where they hope put an initiative before voters to enact local marijuana reform at the ballot this coming November.

Despite the state’s resistance and the latest development in San Marcos, advocates have seen several courts rule in their favor amid the legal challenges.

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Top GOP Senator In Indiana Says It’d Be A ‘Smart Move’ To Decriminalize Marijuana

Indiana’s top Senate leader says that decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana would be a “smart move” in his view, though he remains “unconvinced” that broader legalization of cannabis is in the state’s best interest.

In a wide-ranging interview published by The Indiana Lawyer this week, Senate Pro Tempore Rodric Bray (R) said he knows marijuana reform is “becoming more and more popular, of course, across the state of Indiana, and also in this building.”

“We can’t exist in a vacuum,” acknowledged the lawmaker, who has historically opposed both medical and adult-use legalization. “More than 30 states have legalized marijuana in some capacity, including those states around us.”

While Bray said he was speaking personally—”just Rod Bray talk, and not our caucus”—he described marijuana decriminalization as a better path forward, taking a more moderate approach to reform.

“I think that it would be a smart move, based on where we are in that space right now, that we decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. I don’t think that needs to be criminal at this point,” he said. “Maybe it’s an infraction or something like that, because people are obviously buying it legally in other parts of the country [and] can’t possess it when you come back here. But should that be a jailable offense at this point? Maybe not.”

Decriminalization is “something I would consider,” he added. “But we have to do that as a body.”

Lawmakers in Illinois have been eyeing various cannabis reforms recently, including both medical and adult-use cannabis legalization. In January, Gov. Mike Braun (R) said he’s “amenable” to legalizing medical marijuana but noted that he wasn’t sure whether Republican lawmakers would even take up the matter.

“When it comes to medical marijuana, I’m clear on record that I’m going to be amenable to hearing a case for it,” Braun said at the time.

Other lawmakers have been studying nearby Michigan and Illinois as guides for how to eventually legalize marijuana more broadly.

Bray, for his part, said at a December event that he doesn’t support any form of marijuana legalization.

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North Dakota Senate Committee Rejects Bill To Expand Marijuana Decriminalization That Had Already Passed House

A North Dakota Senate committee has defeated a House-passed bill that sought to reduce the state penalty for low-level marijuana possession to a $150 civil fine.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday voted 5–2 to reject the bill, HB 1596, from Rep. Liz Conmy (D). While the proposal had support from county prosecutors and defense attorneys in the state, police and sheriffs departments were broadly opposed.

“The voters have spoken on this issue,” Stephanie Ingebretsen, who testified on behalf of the Chiefs of Police Association of North Dakota. “They’re not interested in legalization and would like it to stay a criminal offense.”

While North Dakota in 2019 enacted what advocacy groups refer to as a marijuana decriminalization law that removed the risk of jail time for possessing under a half-ounce of cannabis, possession nevertheless remains a criminal infraction and carries a fine of up to $1,000.

While voters have not weighed in on decriminalization itself, last year they rejected an adult-use legalization ballot initiative that would have created a commercial cannabis market. Voters also rejected an earlier legalization proposal at the ballot box in 2022.

The newly rejected bill, HB 1596, would have made simple possession of up to half an ounce of marijuana a civil citation. That change would remove the need for courtroom appearances, which proponents said would help decongest the state’s clogged court system and free up prosecutorial resources for more pressing concerns.

“To give you an idea of the magnitude of time, energy and resources extended,” sponsor Conmy told colleagues, “between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2024—four years in North Dakota—there were 8,676 marijuana charges, 7,365 cases opened, 17,000 hearings, 2,357 cases with a public defender appointed. And all of these cases were handled by our state’s attorneys.”

More than 90 percent of cases involved possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana, she said.

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Trump White House Says Marijuana Decriminalization ‘Opened The Door To Disorder’ In Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump’s White House says the move to decriminalize marijuana in Washington, D.C. is an example of a “failed” policy that “opened the door to disorder.”

In a fact sheet about an executive order that Trump signed on Friday—which is broadly aimed at beautifying the District and making it more safe—the White House listed several local policies in the nation’s capital that it takes issue with, including cannabis reform. That’s despite the president’s previously stated support for a states’ rights approach to marijuana laws.

“D.C.’s failed policies opened the door to disorder—and criminals noticed,” it says, citing “marijuana decriminalization,” as well as the District’s decision to end pre-trial detentions and enforcement practices around rioters, as examples of such policies.

The executive order itself doesn’t mention marijuana specifically. But it says the directive will involve “deploying a more robust Federal law enforcement presence and coordinating with local law enforcement to facilitate the deployment of a more robust local law enforcement presence as appropriate in areas in or about” D.C., and that includes addressing “drug possession, sale, and use.”

With respect to the fact sheet circulated by the White House, cannabis possession and personal cultivation is legalized in D.C. under a voter-approved ballot initiative, though commercial sales of non-medical marijuana remain illegal (a policy referred to by some as “decriminalization”).

Because of a long-standing congressional rider that’s been annually renewed since that vote, the District hasn’t been able to use local funds to implement a system of regulated recreational cannabis sales, so officials have taken steps to expand the city’s existing medical marijuana program as a workaround.

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Atlanta’s Decriminalization Of Marijuana ‘Led To A Reduction In Violent Crime,’ New Research Shows

A new study on Atlanta’s move to decriminalize marijuana concludes that, contrary to warnings from some critics, the policy change in fact led to a decrease in violent crime as police turned their attention to more urgent matters.

The research looks at crime surrounding the city’s 2017 reduction of penalties around the simple possession of cannabis. Prior to the change, possession of up to an ounce of marijuana was punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,500 fine. Afterward, that fell to a maximum $75 fine civil fine, with no possibility of jail time.

While some warned that loosening penalties would lead to a rise in crime rates, researchers observed the opposite.

“Our findings suggest that decriminalization led to a reduction in violent crime,” the new report says, “likely due to police reallocating resources from marijuana enforcement to violent crime prevention.”

To arrive at that conclusion, authors examined agency-level crime data from 2015 through 2018 from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Reports, which included information from nearly all Georgia cities with populations over 25,000. They then compared crime rates between Atlanta and other control cities that did not decriminalize marijuana.

Relative to those control cities, the “estimated effect” of decriminalization in Atlanta was “about 20 fewer violent crimes per 100,000 people per month,” the analysis found. That’s a 19.7 percent reduction from the pre-decriminalization average.

“Our analysis finds that violent crime in Atlanta declined relative to control agencies following marijuana decriminalization, with results robust to alternative estimation methods, event studies, and placebo tests,” the report concludes. “Our estimates suggest that decriminalization led to a 20% reduction in violent crime rates relative to pre-policy levels.”

The paper says the findings align with claims from Atlanta Police Department (APD) shortly after decriminalization that officers would “focus…on violent crime and crimes that truly affect people—things that endanger lives.”

“We want to fill jails with armed robbers, rapists, burglars, home invaders—we do not want to fill the jails with pot smokers. That’s the bottom line,” APD Public Affairs Director Carlos Campos said at the time, the study notes.

Atlanta’s decreases in violent crime, the study’s authors noted, “align with APD’s stated policy shift, as department leaders emphasized reallocating resources to violent crime enforcement.”

“Importantly, this decline was not offset by crime displacement in neighboring counties,” they added.

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Texas Judge Rejects Attorney General’s Attempt To Reverse Dallas Marijuana Decriminalization Law Approved By Voters

A Texas judge has shot down the Republican state attorney general’s attempt to block a local marijuana decriminalization law that voters approved at the ballot last November.

On Friday, 134th Civil District Court Judge Dale Tillery denied a motion for temporary injunction from Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) that sought to undermine the local law by allowing continued enforcement of cannabis criminalization in the state’s third most populous city.

The one-page order from the judge states: “Upon consideration of the pleadings, the application, responses, evidence, and oral arguments presented, if any, the Court finds that the application is hereby DENIED.”

This comes about a month after the Dallas Police Department instructed officers to stop arresting or citing people for possession of up to four ounces of marijuana, in accordance with the voter-approved ballot initiative.

Paxton had filed a lawsuit with the intent to invalidate the law just weeks after the November vote. It’s one of several examples of the state official attempting to leverage the court system to reverse local cannabis reform efforts.

Numerous Texas cities have enacted local decriminalization laws in recent years, and, last January, the attorney general similarly sought to block the reform in Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin and Denton.

State district judges dismissed two of the lawsuits—which argue that state law prohibiting marijuana preempts the local policies—in Austin and San Marcos. The city of Elgin reached a settlement, with the local government pointing out that decriminalization was never implemented there despite voter approval of the initiative.

Dallas lawmakers formally put the marijuana decriminalization initiative on the ballot in August after activists turned in sufficient petitions for the reform. Cannabis icon and music legend Willie Nelson had urged Dallas voters to pass the marijuana measure.

Prior to last August’s vote on ballot placement, some members of the Dallas City Council had expressed interest in streamlining the process of decriminalizing cannabis by acting legislatively, but plans to introduce the proposal at a hearing in June did not materialize, leaving the matter to voters.

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Marijuana Possession Would Be Decriminalized In Texas Under Lawmaker’s New Bill

Low-level marijuana possession would be decriminalized in Texas if a new bill filed this week by a key House leader is enacted.

The measure, HB 3242, from Rep. Joe Moody (D), would make simple possession of up to an ounce of cannabis flower a Class C misdemeanor—explicitly removing the risk of arrest and incarceration.

Class C misdemeanors are punishable by a fine of up to $500, with no possibility of jail time. Currently simple possession of cannabis is a Class B misdemeanor, which carries penalties of up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Moody’s proposal, introduced on Monday, is the latest of nearly two dozen cannabis-related bills filed so far in Texas for the current legislative session. Various other measures would legalize adult-use marijuana, prohibit certain hemp-derived products, remove criminal penalties for cannabis possession and adjust the state’s existing medical marijuana laws, among others.

Heather Fazio, director of the Texas Cannabis Policy Center, has been tracking legislation in the state and applauded the introduction of HB 3242 by Moody, who was tapped by House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) to serve as House speaker pro tempore.

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Dallas police now instructed to not arrest, give citations for marijuana possession of 4 ounces or less

Dallas police officers have new marching orders when it comes to enforcement of arrests and citations for marijuana possession with the implementation of Proposition R.

According to an internal DPD memo obtained by WFAA, Dallas officers are now prohibited from making arrests or issuing citations for marijuana possession – four ounces or less – nor can they “consider the odor of marijuana as probable cause for search and seizure, except as part of a violent felony or high priority narcotics felony investigations.”

The previous policy regarding possession of marijuana prompted officers to confiscate, but not cite nor arrest people who had less than two ounces of marijuana. Per the memo sent out Friday, that policy is now “obsolete.”

Proposition R, also dubbed the “Dallas Freedom Act” by supporters, passed with 66% of the vote in the November election.

Last year, former Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia warned that the proposition could have a negative impact on public safety.

“In my 32 years in law enforcement, in my opinion, it could lead to increased illegal sales and deterioration of quality of life in certain areas of our city,” Garcia told the city council in August 2023.

“Regardless of your thoughts and/or opinions regarding the passing of this amendment, we must remain focused on our dutites and obligations to the Dallas Police Department and the residents of the City of Dallas,” Dallas Interim Police Chief Michael Igo wrote in the memo. “It is crucial to maintain professionalism and composure, as you always represent this exceptional Police Department.”

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Dallas Voters Nix an All-Purpose Excuse for Police Harassment: ‘I Smelled Marijuana’

The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a case involving a Texas police officer, Roberto Felix Jr., who shot and killed a motorist, Ashtian Barnes, after stopping him for toll violations tied to the rental car he was driving. The issue in Barnes v. Felix is whether that use of deadly force, which happened after Felix leaped onto the car as Barnes began driving away, should be assessed based solely on “the moment of the threat” or based on an analysis that includes the circumstances that produced the threat. But another detail of the encounter reflects the role that the purported odor of marijuana plays in police stops that may lead to humiliating searches, cash seizures, arrests, or, as in this case, potentially lethal violence.

When Felix asked Barnes for his driver’s license and proof of insurance, a federal judge noted in 2021, “Barnes informed him that he did not have his license and that he had rented the vehicle a week earlier in his girlfriend’s name.” Barnes started “reaching around the vehicle and rummaging through papers.” Felix told him to stop “digging around” and “asked Barnes whether he had anything in the vehicle he should know about, claiming he smelled marijuana.” Although a search conducted after Felix killed Barnes found no marijuana, the alleged odor helped escalate the encounter, indicating that Felix suspected Barnes of criminal activity as well as toll violations.

A ballot initiative that Dallas voters overwhelmingly approved this week aims to avoid such escalation. In addition to generally barring local police from arresting people for marijuana possession misdemeanors, Proposition R says “Dallas police shall not consider the odor of marijuana or hemp to constitute probable cause for any search or seizure.” That seemingly modest restriction undercuts an excuse that in practice gives cops the discretion to stop, harass, and search pretty much anyone by claiming to smell pot.

Proposition R reflects an ongoing controversy over marijuana odor and probable cause. In states that have legalized marijuana for medical or recreational use, some courts have held that the smell of cannabis, whether detected by a human or a police dog, can no longer justify a search, since it does not necessarily constitute evidence of a crime. And while Texas has not legalized marijuana for any use, it has legalized hemp, which comes from the same plant species and cannot be distinguished from marijuana without a laboratory test to measure THC content.

In 2019, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 1325, which changed the state’s definition of “marihuana” to exclude “hemp, as that term is defined by Section 121.001” of the Texas Agriculture Code. Consistent with federal law, Section 121.001 defines “hemp” as “the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of that plant, including the seeds of the plant and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.”

The difference between legal “hemp” and prohibited “marihuana,” in other words, is the THC concentration, which cannot be measured by smell or even by a field test. “Before H.B. 1325,” Dallas attorney Jon McCurley notes, “marijuana’s distinct and readily recognizable odor often [led] law enforcement to believe that a criminal act was occurring.” But after H.B. 1325, “simply detecting the odor of marijuana may not be enough to justify a search or seizure under the Fourth Amendment because in order to search or get a warrant, law enforcement officials must have probable cause that a crime has been committed or is about to be committed.”

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Social Workers Push Biden To Fully Decriminalize Marijuana Under Federal Law, Not Just Reschedule It

Nearly 150 social workers have signed on to a letter urging President Joe Biden to fully remove marijuana from the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA), arguing that despite the administration’s proposal to downgrade cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III, there’s nevertheless a “critical need for decriminalization.”

“The criminalization of marijuana has torn apart families, with overwhelmingly disparate impact in communities of color,” says the letter, sent to the president by 148 social workers last week. “If marijuana remains scheduled under the CSA, the individual and collective suffering caused by prohibition will continue growing.”

The letter points out that under current law, people convicted of drug offenses can lose public benefits, including welfare aid under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as well as access to housing.

“By virtue of our profession, we have witnessed the grievous harm that marijuana criminalization has caused,” it says. “If marijuana remains scheduled, parents will lose their children, children will lose their homes, and beloved members of our households will be deprived of essential benefits.”

Despite overwhelming support for legalization, it adds, “the use of marijuana remains a federal crime”—which would still be true in most cases even after federal rescheduling.

The current patchwork of state and local laws has also led to sharply different circumstances across the country, the letter continues, arguing that the “piecemeal approach towards legalization has created significant disparities in opportunities and outcomes.”

“While communities in legal states can build wealth from legal marijuana sales and benefit from regulations that ensure a safe, unaltered product,” it says, “other communities are subject to losing their homes, their occupations, their families, and their freedom over the same substance. The disparities in marijuana laws stand in stark opposition to the 88% of Americans who support legalization.”

“Approximately 80% of all children in the foster care system are removed from their homes for drug-related causes,” it adds.

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