Travis County Judge Jan Soifer has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton against the state’s capital city Austin over its 2022 voter-approved ordinance decriminalizing cannabis possession. The judge stated that the ordinance wasn’t causing any harm to the residents and didn’t violate state law.
Several cities in Texas approved decriminalizing cannabis including Austin, where in May 2022 voters agreed to allow the possession of four ounces or less of cannabis. Austin isn’t only the state capital but also home to the University of Texas which has more than 50,000 students. It has a more liberal view than many rural Texas towns and has already stepped back from busting people with cannabis citing the inability to distinguish between legal hemp and regulated cannabis.
The city also argued that by decriminalizing cannabis, its short-staffed police department could focus on more serious violent crimes. Austin lawyers argued it would rather police officers focus on fighting fentanyl rather than cannabis.
Paxton filed the suit in January, alleging Austin was violating state law and promoting “the use of illicit drugs that harm our communities.”
“The city ordinance does not order police officers to stop enforcing drug laws,” the city’s lawyers argued, according to court documents. “Rather, it halts arrests and citations related to one specific type of charge, while prioritizing violent felonies and felony narcotics cases, and while still allowing enforcement of marijuana seizure laws.”
Texas cannabis advocacy group Ground Game released a statement from Executive Director Catina Voellinger saying, “Ground Game’s campaign in Austin is what got this organization started. We took our victory here and expanded to five more cities – and have only grown from there. By protecting our first policy victory, we keep our statewide momentum going, and encourage more cities to follow suit.”
Mike Sigel, political director for Ground Game Texas, said “Marijuana reform accomplishes multiple objectives at once. We have historic racism in our policing especially in terms of marijuana enforcement and we are addressing that by preventing disproportionate enforcement against Black and latino communities. We are also allowing cities to reallocate local dollars to higher priority needs.”
Texas’ legal landscape
In 2015, Texas legalized medical marijuana, but the program was slow to launch and is extremely restrictive. In 2024, there are only three licensed medical dispensaries in the state which is home to 30 million people. In 2019 Governor Abbott signed legislation legalizing hemp crops for industrial use.
The legalization of hemp has caused an explosion of hemp smoke shops that sell products very similar to regulated cannabis. The Texas Tribune reported, “In 2020, the first year the Texas Department of State Health Services began registering retailers, some 1,948 retailers were actively registered. By 2023, that number had jumped to 8,343. And in the first four months of 2024, the state has already seen more than 7,700 active registrations.”
Now it looks as if state lawmakers are considering reining in intoxicating hemp. the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs held a public hearing at the end of May to discuss the issue and legislation is expected to be introduced in a coming legislative session.
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