Texas City Rallies Behind Marijuana Decriminalization
There’s nothing more American than rebelling— and a few Texas cities are doing so to lobby for cannabis legalization.
In Texas, recreational weed is still illegal, but its medical scene is booming. In 2022, Texas cannabusinesses brought in a whopping $8 billion in revenue, so changing the cannabis policies in the state has been a hot-button issue among the public, lawmakers, and stakeholders.
However, progress has been slow. Texas still has some of the most rigid regulations in place for cannabis across the board, and decision-makers still have an antiquated stance on both medical and recreational cannabis.
The Senate recently failed to enact a policy change that passed in the House, which would have decriminalized cannabis across Texas, allowed doctors to recommend cannabis in place of opioids for chronic pain, and expunged cannabis-related criminal history.
Needless to say, people aren’t happy. The bill was officially killed, putting decriminalization on hold.
With progress at a snail’s pace, a few cities within Texas have moved towards taking matters into their own hands by decriminalizing weed within city limits. Lubbock is the seventh city to get involved, joining other cities like San Marcos and Denton that are rebelling against this decision by coming up with policy changes that work for them.
Lubbock proposes to ban city cops from giving out citations or arresting people over the age of 21 with four ounces of weed or less. However, the federal court or an authoritative state may still oppose the policy, in which case, they’re proposing that the city will make enforcing the cannabis possession misdemeanor laws at the lowest possible priority.
In some cities like San Antonio, residents voted against similar measures, so Lubbock is hoping for a different outcome. Now that all of the paperwork has been submitted to the city secretary, the group supporting the Freedom Act Lubbock ordinance is preparing for what comes next.
If everything goes according to plan, the campaign will have 60 days to collect 4,800 valid signatures. Securing those signatures will advance the measure to the city council, where decision-makers will consider it. If the city council says no, the proposal will head to the ballot for voters to make the final call.
A spokesperson for the campaign believes that lawmakers are going to vote against the policy change. However, stranger things have happened. Worst case scenario, it’ll be up for the voters to decide in the coming months.
