Five cities in the very Republican state of Texas have decriminalized marijuana within their jurisdiction. That means that police will not pursue charges regarding possession or distribution of marijuana.
Naturally, the Attorney General is not having it. In order to tamp down on the cities, AG Ken Paxton has announced a lawsuit against the cities of Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin, and Denton.
The pressure against the cities will probably be enough to intimidate other cities from doing the same thing.
In 2022, when Paxton decriminalized marijuana in their ordinance, there was a great amount of pushback from law enforcement, who argued that the action rested with the state, not the cities. Soon after, Harker Heights voters passed the same law, but was dropped by the state due to the reaction from law enforcement. Similar situations will probably come to pass after these lawsuits.
Ken Paxton, unfortunately, has some of the law backing him in this one. The Texas Local Government Code contains language that forbids cities to enact any policy that causes them to not fully enforce laws relating to drugs.
It’ll be interesting to see how this one plays out.
Read the original article at The Hill.
