A Texas House committee has approved a Senate-passed bill that would prohibit cities from putting any citizen initiative on local ballots that would decriminalize marijuana or other controlled substances—as several localities have already done despite lawsuits from the state attorney general.
On Wednesday, about a week and a half after the Senate passed the bill from Charles Perry (R), members of the House State Affairs Committee voted 9-6 to advance the legislation. This same panel held a recent hearing on the House counterpart version, but it hasn’t moved. It indicates that the lawmakers are using the Senate bill to enforce the prohibition on local cannabis legislation.
According to the proposed amendments, the state law will be changed so that local authorities “may not put an item on the ballot that provides that they local entity won’t fully enforce state drug laws, such as a charter, or charter amendement, which would require that the local authority” does not.
The latest version of the legislation, as previously amended in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, would also specifically bar localities from putting initiatives on the ballot that would contravene the state’s consumable hemp laws.
A form would have to be created by the Attorney General for the people to use in reporting violations of law. It would also expedite the legal process to take on any city by mandating an appeals court render its “final order or judgement with as little delay as possible,” according to a legislative assessment.
Cities found to be in violation of the law by placing a decriminalization initiative—or any measure that conflicts with state or federal drug laws—would be subject to a $25,000 civil fine for a first offense and a $50,000 fine for any subsequent offense.
Perry stated in an intent statement that “in the past few years, several local governments adopted policies and ordinances designed to decriminalize drugs or to instruct law enforcement to not enforce state drug laws.”
He said that in 2024 the Attorney General would file lawsuits against several cities who had adopted non-prosecution polices which violated Texas law regarding marijuana possession and sale. The trend in Texas is increasing, even though these cases are still pending.
If the decriminalization of local laws is already forbidden by statute as a result of the lawsuits filed by the attorney general, it’s unclear why the code changes are needed. However, the proposed legislation seems to intensify penalties and enforcers.
While several courts have previously upheld local cannabis decriminalization laws, an appellate court comprised of three conservative justices appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has recently pushed back against two of those rulings, siding with the state in its legal challenge to the marijuana policy in Austin and San Marcos.
Meanwhile, despite the ongoing litigation and advancement of the House and Senate bills, Texas activists have their targets set on yet another city, Kyle, where they hope put an initiative before voters to enact local marijuana reform at the ballot this coming November.
Abbott has hit out at the local cannabis reform initiatives.
“Local communities such as towns, cities and counties, they don’t have the authority to override state law,” the governor said last May “If they want to see a different law passed, they need to work with their legislators. Let’s work together to ensure that as a collective, the state will be able to pass some law.
It would be a “chaotic” system and “unworkable” for cities to pick and choose the state laws that they wish to adhere to.
Abbott has previously said that he doesn’t believe people should be in jail over marijuana possession—although he mistakenly suggested at the time that Texas had already enacted a decriminalization policy to that end.
In 2023, Ground Game released a report that looked at the impacts of the marijuana reform laws. In 2023, Ground Game released a report that examined the impacts of marijuana reform laws. It concluded that hundreds of people will avoid jail even though they may have caused repercussions from local law enforcement. According to the report, these initiatives also encourage voter participation because they are on the ballot.
Another cannabis decriminalization measure that went before voters in San Antonio that year was overwhelmingly defeated, but that proposal also included unrelated provisions to prevent enforcement of abortion restrictions.
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In March, the Texas Senate passed a bill which cannabis activists and stakeholders claimed would essentially eliminate the hemp industry in the state by prohibiting any products made from this plant that contained THC.
That, as well as another measure from Rep. Joe Moody (D) to decriminalize cannabis statewide, is one of the latest of nearly two dozen cannabis-related proposals filed so far in Texas for the current legislative session. The other proposals include measures to legalize marijuana for adults, eliminate criminal penalties associated with cannabis possession, adjust existing medical marijuana law in Texas, etc.
Moody sponsored a similar marijuana decriminalization bill last legislative session, in 2023. That measure, HB 218, passed the House on an 87–59 vote but later died in a Senate committee.
The House had already passed earlier cannabis decriminalization proposals during the two previous legislative sessions, in 2021 and 2019. But the efforts have consistently stalled in the Senate amid opposition from the lieutenant governor.
Separately, a Texas House committee last week amended and passed two bills designed to prepare the state to provide swift access to therapeutic psychedelics in the event of approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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