Activists seem to have collected sufficient signatures to place marijuana decriminalization on the poll in three extra Texas cities, based on advocacy group NORML.
If not too long ago circulated petitions are licensed by officers in Bastrop, Dallas and Lockhart, voters in these municipalities will determine on the November poll field whether or not to ban native police from busting folks for low-level pot possession, NORML experiences.Voters in Austin, Denton, Elgin, Killeen and San Marcos have already got permitted comparable measures. Petition drives by reform teams additionally landed these proposals on native ballots.
In the meantime, Lubbock voters rejected decriminalization throughout a Could referendum. An analogous measure failed with San Antonio voters in 2023, largely as a result of it tied decriminalization to a bigger bundle of legal justice reforms, a few of which drew sturdy opposition from enterprise teams.
In February, Texas Lawyer Normal Ken Paxton sued to strike down decriminalization measures permitted by voters in Austin, Denton, Elgin, Killeen and San Marcos, claiming the cities had been selling “illicit medicine that hurt our communities.”
A Travis County district decide tossed out Paxton’s go well with, arguing the Republican lawyer normal had no authorized justification to file the case. Paxton is anticipated to attraction.
Texas is one in every of simply 19 states the place police can nonetheless jail folks for possessing small quantities of weed, based on a current Marijuana Coverage Mission evaluation.
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