While nearly half of the 50 states have embraced legal recreational marijuana, pot remains outlawed in Texas, and we don\u2019t see that changing anytime soon.<\/p>\n
Whatever side of that debate you\u2019re on, decisions about weed\u2019s legal status shouldn\u2019t be made at the local level, and it\u2019s a good thing that Dallas\u2019 marijuana decriminalization efforts are on hold<\/a> for now.<\/p>\n In November, Dallas voters approved a charter amendment effectively decriminalizing the drug<\/a>. It forbade police from using the smell of marijuana as probable cause for search or seizure, and it limited their ability to arrest or cite anyone for possessing 4 ounces or less. <\/p>\n We strongly urged Dallasites to vote against the amendment. Willie Nelson had a different take<\/a>. So did most voters, with about 66% voting in favor. Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin and Denton have all passed similar measures<\/a>.<\/p>\n Opinion<\/p>\n All six have drawn lawsuits from Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2019s office. How those will turn out in the end, we don\u2019t know, but an appeals court in April delivered a blow to the city-level decriminalization movement. It ruled that Austin\u2019s ordinance is preempted by state law<\/a>. <\/p>\n In the wake of that decision late last month, the city of Dallas filed a joint motion with Paxton\u2019s office asking a judge to temporarily halt enforcement of the city\u2019s decriminalization measure until the lawsuit is resolved, this newspaper reported. <\/p>\n Dallas residents voiced their opinion loud and clear: They wanted decriminalization. But in a rare moment, we agree with Paxton that the decision doesn\u2019t belong in the city\u2019s hands. <\/p>\n Four ounces might not sound like a whole lot, but it\u2019s an amount most who aren\u2019t dealers wouldn\u2019t carry. Even in Colorado, where weed is legal recreationally, residents can only legally buy up to an ounce at a time<\/a>. <\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to see why cities should be allowed to unilaterally decide their borders are somehow free from state law around a legal question so serious as the possession of a Schedule 1 drug.<\/p>\n The Texas Constitution<\/a> allows cities with more than 5,000 residents to adopt a charter and govern themselves. But the state constitution also says that \u201cno charter or any ordinance\u201d is to conflict with state laws. <\/p>\n Those who want to decriminalize or legalize marijuana should make their case at the state level. That\u2019s what we elect lawmakers for. <\/p>\n The debate about pot\u2019s future legal status has shifted in recent years, fueled greatly by a sparsely regulated market of intoxicating hemp-derived products<\/a>. Lawmakers banned those products this session, but Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s last-minute veto<\/a> set up what\u2019s sure to be an important debate in the coming special session. <\/p>\n The state Capitol is the appropriate setting for talks about pot\u2019s future in Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While nearly half of the 50 states have embraced legal recreational marijuana, pot remains outlawed in Texas, and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":56568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,6083,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-56567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-editorials","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114834057646577437","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}