Texas lawmaker files bill to legalize marijuana
A Republican Texas lawmaker filed a bill Monday to entirely remove government regulatory controls from cannabis in the the state of Texas, striking any comments of the plant from state laws.
In Texas, a conservative lawmaker filed a bill to completely deregulate marijuana in the Lone Star State Monday, proposing to strike any mention of the psychoactive plant from state law.
“Everything that God made is good, even marijuana” said state Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, who filed the bill. “The conservative thought is that government doesn’t need to fix something that God made good.”The 24-page bill begins: “The following provisions are repealed,” then lists a good amount of Texas statutes in correlation to cannabis. If the Legislature were to pass the bill, pot in in the lone star state would be regulated like any normal crop.
In a press release, Simpson stated he is all for regulating cannabis like the state regulates “tomatoes, jalapeños or coffee.”It’s a noticeably different approach to cannabis law reform than other states have accepted. In the past year,Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Washington, D.C. which are considered blue sates, have legalize marijuana within a detailed foundation of taxation and regulation. However it would not be the same with Simpson’s bill, which would provide no such restrictions. In its current form, the bill has essentially no chance of winning the acceptance of legislatives and the governor’s signature, according to Gary Hale, a former intelligence chief in the Drug Intelligence Agency’s Houston sector and a drug policy scholar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston.
“A blanket decriminalization of marijuana and classification as a vegetable is not going to happen,” he stated. “Overall legalization will happen but in my opinion it will happen in incremental baby steps.”
In his column, Simpson pondered on his Republican beliefs in small government and individual freedoms, and he invoked a biblical verse to give details on his commitment and efforts to repeal cannabis prohibition. He said to KETK he wants to “reframe the current marijuana discussion” by talking prohibition repeal in terms of common traditional values.That peticular angle makes Texas’ first run at legalization stand out drastically from other states’ efforts, stated Dean Becker, a radio host out of Houston on the Drug Truth Network.”I think it’s the first time in America that such a bold and semi religious presentation of thought has been put forward about the cannabis plant,” he stated. But Simpson’s mind set on it resonates with 85-year-old Houston local Ann Lee, who founded the group Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition and flew to Washington D.C. last week to promote legalization at a conservative political conference.
RELATED: Republican Christian grandmother a shocking voice for Texas cannabis reform
“Prohibition goes against the fundamental principles of the Republican party. Prohibition is against the fundamental principle of freedom,” she stated. “When you look at the facts, it’s not conservative to support prohibition.” In June 2014, Lee was one of almost 7,000 delegates to the Texas Republican Party convention located in Fort Worth, where she provided her stand point in favor of legalizing medical pot in the state, highlighting the benefits it’s provided to her son. But the party voted to oppose legalizing cannabis in its official platform.
“It’s the official party position that we don’t favor legalization of marijuana, however it should be noted that a sizable minority voted in favor of allowing medical marijuana usage,” said Steve Munisteri, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. “It was hotly contested by a sizable number of delegates on both sides.”
RELATED: Bipartisan coalition introduces bill to reduce penalties for marijuana possession
The national Republican Party did not reply to repeated demand for their official party platform.
In February, Pew Research stated that 63 percent of young Republican supported cannabis legalization, Gen X & Y’s along with millennial that are old enough to have a say have much more openly backed reformed drug laws compared to their parents of older generations. But Simpson, who is 54, stated that a fair amount of his Republican associates also back upped repeal of prohibition, and viewed the Drug War an “abysmal failure.”
“The conservative approach—the liberty approach—is to recognize force and violence is not a good way to deal with drug abuse,” Simpson said. “Putting people in prison and teaching them a whole lot about crime, separating them from the family, taking away the breadwinners simply for possessing a plant that God made—that’s wrong.”
Indeed, the number of federal inmates in the U.S. has quadrupled since the early 1990s, largely due to a crackdown on drug use. Almost half of all federal prisoners are currently incarcerated for drug-related offenses.
RELATED: Senator from Texas moves to reduce overcrowding in prisons
A spokesman, for the Sheriff’s Association of Texas, AJ Lauderback said, “we’ll oppose [Simpson’s] bill and any bill that wishes to legalize marijuana in the state of Texas.”
He announced it was a gateway drug, bore high social expenses for drug rehabilitation programs and presents concern, as users could operate cars while under the influence.
Yet in the unlikely situation that marijuana became legal in Texas, federal authorities could trump laws with in the state and prosecute marijuana offenders. Gale stated the Obama administration has opted to “look the other way and not prosecute marijuana cases in states where legalization has been passed,” but states that federal law officials like the DEA and FBI still peruse the marijuana in the states where it’s legal permitted.
Becker announced he worries that the next president could switch Obama’s policy and prosecute pot growers and distributors across the country in spite of laws enforced by the state.
Yet Simpson announced his traditional values of small government with limited reach into civilian life led him to believe that not even state law officials have business with cannabis.
“We should use out resource in law enforcement to deal with murder, with rape, with theft, but just possessing a substance that God made is not wrong,” he stated.“If you use it irresponsibly, then sure. If you drive off the road from marijuana, then sure, but I don’t know anyone who’s run off the road because of marijuana. I do know people who have fallen asleep because they ate too much.”
MAPH Enterprises, LLC | (305) 414-0128 | 1501 Venera Ave, Coral Gables, FL 33146 | new@marijuanastocks.com
