Austin, Texas voters have authorised a neighborhood poll measure to decriminalize marijuana—a victory for activists who’re additionally pursuing related reforms in different cities within the Lone Star state.
The measure, which was spearheaded by the progressive marketing campaign Floor Sport Texas, was forward by an insurmountable lead of 85 % to fifteen % on Saturday night with early voting and a few election day outcomes reported by the three counties that Austin is a part of.
Moreover decriminalizing hashish, the measure additionally bans “no-knock” warrants by police. Activists turned in additional than 33,000 signatures to qualify the measure, after which level the Austin Metropolis Council authorised a decision to place it on the poll.
On the identical day that the initiative was licensed, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) mentioned that he doesn’t imagine individuals ought to be incarcerated over low-level marijuana possession.
Whereas Austin, in addition to different Texas cities like Dallas, have already independently enacted legislation enforcement coverage adjustments aimed toward decreasing arrests for cannabis-related offenses by issuing citations and summons, the ordinance goes a step additional.
The measure prevents arrests and citations for misdemeanor marijuana possession inside Texas’s capital metropolis. Additionally, it says police can not challenge citations for residue or paraphernalia in lieu of a possession cost.
Floor Sport Texas beforehand tried to place the initiative on the November 2021 poll, however they didn’t meet the signature turn-in deadline and shifted their consideration to 2022.
Texas marijuana reform activists aren’t completely targeted on the state capital. For instance, a marketing campaign lately introduced that it has collected sufficient signatures to position hashish decriminalization on the November poll in Denton.
Floor Sport Texas and different advocates are additionally actively working to place marijuana decriminalization on native ballots in Killeen, Harker Heights and San Marcos.
There isn’t any statewide, citizen-led initiative course of that may allow advocates to place a difficulty like marijuana decriminalization or legalization on the Texas poll. However on the native stage, there are restricted circumstances the place activists can leverage dwelling rule legal guidelines that permit for coverage adjustments.
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A latest ballot discovered {that a} sturdy majority of Texans—together with most Republicans—help even broader reform to legalize marijuana for grownup use.
The survey from the College of Houston and Texas Southern College discovered that 67 % of Texas residents again the broad reform. Fifty-one % of contributors who recognized as Republican mentioned they again legalization.
In Texas, drug coverage reform did advance within the legislature throughout final 12 months’s session, however not essentially on the tempo that advocates had hoped to see.
A invoice to develop the state’s medical hashish program and one other to require a research into the therapeutic potential of sure psychedelics for army veterans have been enacted.
Advocates stay upset, nonetheless, that lawmakers have been unable to move extra expansive hashish payments—together with a decriminalization proposal that cleared the Home however noticed no motion within the Senate.
The Home authorised a hashish decriminalization invoice in 2019, nevertheless it didn’t advance within the Senate that session.
The Texas Republican Get together adopted a platform plank endorsing decriminalization of marijuana possession in 2018.
A Texas ballot that was launched over the summer season discovered that 60 % of voters within the state help making hashish authorized “for any use.”
Individually, the state Supreme Court docket heard testimony in March in a case in regards to the state’s ban on manufacturing smokable hemp merchandise—the most recent growth in a drawn-out authorized battle on the coverage first proposed and challenged in 2020.