By Adam Dick - June 19, 2018 at 10:20AM
Over the weekend, delegates at the Texas Republican Party’s statewide convention voted by wide margins in favor of several roll-backs of marijuana prohibition. With over 80 percent support, the delegates approved three state party platform planks calling, respectively, for decriminalizing possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, moving marijuana from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 of the United States government’s Controlled Substances Act, and urging the Texas legislature to “pass legislation allowing cultivation, manufacture, and sale of industrial hemp and hemp products.” A fourth plank, calling for some expansion of the state’s rather limited low-THC cannabis oil medical program, received over 90 percent support.
So what is up next for the state’s marijuana laws? Will the state government adopt the delegates’ proposals? Might legal marijuana even be coming soon to the Lone Star State?
This action by the Texas Republican Party state convention delegates is an indication of how far the movement toward ending the war on marijuana has come in America. Republican politicians, in contrast with the younger segments of Republican voters, tend to oppose rolling back marijuana prohibition. And Texas, where no Democrat has been elected to any of 29 statewide elective offices since 1994, has been reluctant to join the trend of states enacting recreational or medical marijuana legalization.
Polling suggests there is majority public support in Texas for legalization. Further, the state House of Representatives Criminal Jurisprudence Committee’s approval in 2015 of legislation that would treat marijuana the same as tomatoes for adults — a proposal much more radical than anything adopted in any state so far — indicates there is even potential for Texas to leap to the lead in rolling back the war on marijuana, though that legislation did not receive a floor vote by the entire House.
“Everything is bigger in Texas,” the saying goes. Maybe the Republican-majority Texas legislature, looking to the public support for legalization, will decide to bring the 2015 legislation to the state House and Senate floors for votes and live up to that saying.
Whether Texas next adopts radical legalization of marijuana or takes the more moderate steps recommended by the Republican Party state convention delegates, it seems inevitable that Texas will continue, as are other states, to take steps to roll back marijuana prohibition. Indeed, on the local level, roll-backs have been occurring in Texas in recent years, with local prosecutors increasingly deciding to significantly reduce the number of prosecutions they pursue for alleged marijuana law violations.
These and other local action may be the primary course by which much more marijuana prohibition roll-backs will occur in the state. After all, over 80 years after the end of the US government’s alcohol prohibition, a small portion of Texas local governments still have “dry” status due to their restrictions on alcohol sales, though more localities continue moving from “dry” to “wet.”
One thing holding back the liberalization of marijuana laws in Texas is the lack of the ability of voters, via petition, to put binding ballot measures on the Texas statewide ballot. Ballot measures are the means by which medical marijuana and recreational marijuana legalization have been adopted in most states. In two other “conservative” states — Oklahoma and Utah — that do have the means for voters to put such measures on their statewide ballots, we see medical marijuana ballot measures poised to win voters’ approval this year.
Politicians in Austin — the Texas capital — can likely hold out against the countrywide movement for major roll-backs in marijuana prohibition for only a short time longer, especially now that state convention delegates of the state’s dominant party have voted, by wide margins, for taking several significant steps to roll back the prohibition. Further, the days of countrywide marijuana prohibition are numbered, with likely five years or less remaining. Replacing marijuana prohibition, similar to what occurred with alcohol after its countrywide prohibition ended, will probably be a “patchwork quilt” of laws differing from state to state and even from county to county and city to city, with some laws more restrictive than others, but none totally prohibitive. The proper question seems not to be whether or not Texas will legalize marijuana. The question instead is whether Texas will legalize big, small, or local.
from Ron Paul Institute Featured Articles
via IFTTT
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Merchandise
Ron Paul America Cloud
Site Credits
Ron Paul America
is voluntarily affiliated with
______________________________
Site created, maintained and hosted by
Tags
#TurnOnTheTruth
2008
2012
4th amendment
911
ACTION
Afghanistan war
Agency
Aggression Principle
al-Qaeda
Alan Colmes
Alert
America
America's Fault
Americans
antigun
AR 15
assault weapon
Audit
Authoritarian
bailouts
Believe
Big Brother
big government
bill of rights
Blame
blowback
bubbles
Bush
Campaign for Liberty
Career Politician Eric Cantor
Central Bank
Charity
China
churches
collapse
Collectivism
Commission
committee
Compassion
Congress
Conservative
constitution
Crash
dangerous person
Democrat
Democrats
Donald Trump
Donald Trump. Planned Parenthood
drones
economic
Economy
Edward Snowden
End the Fed
European Union
Federal Reserve
Floyd Bayne
floyd bayne for congress
force
foreign interventionism
free market
free markets
GOP Nominee
GOP Presidential Debates
Government
Great Depression
gun control
House of Representatives
housing bubble
HR 1745
I like Ron Paul except on foreign policy
If ye love wealth better than liberty
IFTTT
Individual
Individualism
Institute
Irag
Iran
Iraq war
ISIL
ISIS
Judge Andrew Napalitano
libertarian
Liberty
Liberty Letters
Liberty Report
Lost
mass
Media
meltdown
metadata
Micheal Moore
Middle East
Mitt Romney
nap
National
Neocons
New Ron Paul Ad
New York Times
Newsletters
Newt Gingrich
No
Non
non-interventionism
NSA
NSA Snooping
Obama
Overreach
overthrow
Patriot Act
peace
Peace and Prosperity
politicians
Pope Francis
President
Presidential
Presidential Race
programs
prosperity
Race
Racist
Racist Newsletters
Rand Paul
Read the Bills Act
recessions
redistribution of wealth
refugee crisis
Repeal Obamacare
Report
Republican
Republican Nomination
Republican Nominee
Republicans
Revolution
Rick Santorum
Rick Santorum Exposed
Ron
Ron Paul
Ron Paul Institute
Ron Paul Institute Featured Articles
Ron Paul Institute for Peace And Prosperity
Ron Paul Institute Peace and Prosperity Articles
Ron Paul Next Chapter Media Channel
Ron Paul Racist Newsletters
ron paul's foreign policy
Ronald Reagan
ronpaulchannel.com
ronpaulinstitute.org
Rosa DeLauro
russia
Samuel Adams
Saudi Arabia
Second Amendment
Security
Senate
Senator
September 11th attacks
Show
Soviet
Spying
stimulate
Stock Market
surveillance
Syria
tech bubble
terrorist
The
the Fed
the poor
US
US foreign policy
Us troops
USA Freedom Act
Virginia
Virginia Republican Primary
voluntarism. Liberty
Voluntary
Warner
Warning
warrantless
wiretaps
YouTube
No comments:
Post a Comment