Texas would become the
25th state in the U.S. to remove the threat of being jailed as a punishment for
possessing small amounts of marijuana under a bill approved by the state House
of Representatives on Monday.
Rep. Joseph Moody (D),
the chief sponsor, amended the bill on the floor in order to win more support
from colleagues. An earlier version included a lower fine—$250—and would have
treated low-level possession as a civil infraction instead of a class C
misdemeanor as is the case under the revised proposal.
But its broad effects
remain the same: No arrest or incarceration for people caught with small
amounts of marijuana.
They will also avoid
long-term criminal records as long as they follow terms of deferral assigned by
judges, such as doing community service or completing drug education classes.
The provisions, which individuals can take advantage of as much as once a year,
also apply to possession of paraphernalia.
"Texans have
suffered under failing marijuana policies for far too long," Heather
Fazio, director of Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy, said. "Rep.
Moody's bill will help preserve valuable public safety resources and keep a
marijuana charge from derailing someone's life."
The proposal also sets
out a procedure for people to have marijuana offenses expunged—meaning that
they would not have criminal records, which can have long-lasting consequences
on employment, housing, educational opportunities and the ability to maintain a
driver's license.
This bill from a very conservative state will be challenged by many. The assumption that marijuana is not a danger to society is like saying all other illegal drugs are safe.
ReplyDeleteExpect more from this controversial approach.
Mexico will be feeling the pinch from such. Marijuana dispensaries will impact the brick garbage weed that is passed from Mexico.
Added with the consideration of retaliatory attacks by Mexico's government against the US over delays at the border. US efforts to step up the number of agents focused on migrants has left customs checkpoints understaffed and drastically slowed trade.
Things are heating up for Mexico.
E42
What are you rambling on about now did you not read the article
DeleteExpect prices for Mexican marijuana to tumble if legalization is implemented.
DeleteLike that of opium with the introduction of fentanyl. A financial blow to cartels. Relying on other states who do not follow legalization for profits.
Many companies here are still very much anti-mota. Decriminalizing small amounts won’t matter. People will still get sacked, or not hired at all once they pull hair or piss in a cup. The number of people complaining about being sacked will go up, and it’ll probably set the stage for more lawsuits.
DeleteI agree on Texas being conservative but the classification of a plant being deemed as hazardous as a man made chemical cocktail to me sounds exaggerating and ridiculous to say the least. The rest of your comment just insults my intelligence. Let's see what the future brings.
DeleteUhm high grade weed in mexico for rich Mexicans and tourists has been present for years.
DeleteAnd i was talking to some beltran leyva kids. They're very optimistic with the "green boom" and medical legalization in mexico.
I think us as Texans been long overdue for this bill to pass, but since we are neighbors with Mexico it will be very interesting to how this bill plays out, especially in the bordertowns..
DeleteJust about every ghetto strip mall in Texas has a smoke shop. Legal or not people are smoking away. Just take a look at all the Planet K chain of adult novelty stores in the state. If it’s not them it’s another small time business that’s pushing out the paraphernalia to the masses. I think that as long as the government gets their cut for sales it won’t really matter who opposes pot.
Delete- Sol Prendido
There needs to be a like button
Delete👍🏻 12:03
E-42 stop glorifying narco code names wanna be
There is no such thing as high grade Mexican weed. There's no such thing as high grade weed grown anywhere outdoors.
Delete"The assumption that marijuana is not a danger to society is like saying all other illegal drugs are safe."
Delete---------------
The above is the pure, unadulterated mierda. People who want to keep a PLANT illegal is the real danger to society.
Puro pinchi pedo, decriminalizing grifa could lead to the release of ultra drechista extreme right lawmen that have lived their lives dedicated to drug trafficking more than to taking kickbacks, like sheriff lupe trevino, caught trafficking and escorting loads with their squad car like his police officer son... To keep them quiet too...
DeleteTexas has their head up their rear-end so deep possession of any small amount of MJ will still be criminal offense with court hearings, fines, and records -- and that goes for paraphernalia too WTF?!
ReplyDeleteTexas has always been a backward state. Americans need to realize the fact that the more people get educated, the more democratic this country will become. I haven’t heard of anyone selling that AZ weed in years, only the east coast used to buy that trash.
ReplyDelete"Marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man." – Francis Young Administrative Law Judge, Drug Enforcement Agency September 1988
ReplyDelete8:38 very sane individuals with no health problems are the target market of these drug traffickers, no problem in using grifa to treat illness even if it is pure BS. The problem is not the drugs, but the commercialization for pure economic interest that never stops needing more better moneyed customers.
DeleteSome women need to smoke their shit to blame it for forkin' it to the estupidos they hang with.
Not quite yet approved into law, bill probably will die with Texas Senate.
ReplyDeleteFinally a thoughtful post instead of all these Texas law experts
DeleteThank you 8:54
true lt. gov Dan Patrick has already said that this bill is dead on arrival and has no chance , curiously his campaign is funded by prison money go figure
DeleteNow Mexico will need a wall to keep gringos on their side, because legal grifa is not cheap, licenses are real expensive, for the most part for rich millionaire businessmen that do not give a rat's ass about the kind of low level mariguano Tejas is famous for, they always have fresh supply of donkey dung. Say NO to Drugs.
ReplyDeleteAriba Argentina.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a small step it's ridiculous. While other states are legalizing it completely, Texas makes this mini move. Old white Baptists control the state even though the majority of the population is young and minority. It's like fucking apartheid South Africa.
ReplyDeleteGet real!
ReplyDeleteIs this really to affect cartels income or to let fuckin addicts off the hook?
If I, was an employeer in any state that legalized any drug id be having random drug tests every week. Fuckin marijuana users don't well work for shit!
11:16 - The most decorated Olympian in history uses marijuana. So saying, and I quote “fuckin marijuana users don’t well work for shit” is ridiculous. You should probably move out of the United States cause marijuana will be federally legal within the next 10 years.
DeleteOn top of that alcohol is a drug that’s legal in all 50 states and I don’t see you bitching about that.
Let’s be honest, you’re clearly to ignorant and stupid to ever be someone’s employer.
Stop throwing stones in a glass house smh
Phelpso
Oh, my, am I to smoke grifa because some dumbass swimmer smokes his shit? Is everybody to partake of the shit feast to belong???
DeleteALV with those pinchis examples we are supposed to admire or even better, to follow... Nohing against swimming, or having a sex change because of my "many medals"...
The legal pot business in California is in a bit of a mess. The state has installed such rigid inspection guidelines that products are hyper expensive.
ReplyDeleteAs such two users I know well have turned their backs on legal pot and have gone back to their 'dealer'.
Have you seen California burning because grifa farmers want to plant their shit all over the mountains?
DeleteThat was a mess.
Wont be legal. Dan Patrick (Lt.Governor)just announced the bill would be dead at the house. Too much money in locking people up for weed.
ReplyDeleteGood to see this happen. We need dispensaries. Why is alcohol legal? Yet weed is still illegal. Here's a comparison of them. When alcohol was illegal. We had dutch Schultz and Al Capone. Weed has been illegal. Yet there's no purple gang. Just stoners like me. Trying to score our next bag. To watch yuyuhakusho. Eat little Caesars and relax. Finish watching Married With children. Compare that to someone drunk af. Who gets behind the wheel and kills someone. You could go buy a 24 pack. Get drunk and do something terrible. Yet you can't go buy an ounce and relax. Worse that happens with weed is you run out. Or you get the munchies and are broke.
ReplyDeleteMarijuana for legit psychiatric medical purposes? I have no problems with this.
ReplyDeleteHowever, pot used for traditional (recreational) "mood altering" purposes, I have problems with this because:
1. youths' developing brains are damaged (alcohol does this too).
2. Job impairment issues. Certain occupation demand high alertness and motor skills. For example, how would you like a surgeon high on pot? A truck driver high on pot next to you on the highway?
A nuclear power-plant operator monitoring crucial equipment? A lab technician working with highly dangerous viruses? Or, working in a deep mine with a co-worker high on pot?
3. Pot use by youths for mood altering purposes is usually a social recreational activity... meaning it involves gathering in groups for partying (dancing, sex, games, fun!) Such gatherings are also scenes where other drugs abound and pot acts as a dis-inhibitor to risk taking highly addictive drugs like heroin, meth, and cocaine. Here pot is the proverbial "gateway" drug many tragic stories of ruined lives start.
4. Secondary economic damages: This drug is easily detected by interested agents of all kinds. It's detection by employers, law enforcement, medical agents, and insurance companies is relatively easy. For example, lets say you have a hard earned college degree and are hired by a wonderful corporation where the sky is the limit to your future. This corporation has a series of medical and psycho-social background tests for weeding out drug users. Yeah, you might fool the tests... but, such corporations will likely catch pot users before the permanent hiring date. And the person, will never be told why. (I have actually known "here today, gone tomorrow" cases of such people).
Finally, marijuana has enough primary, secondary and tertiary kinds of negative consequences that would make me urge "youth" to stay the hell away from this and other mood altering drugs. Trust me, in the near future, good jobs will be increasingly harder and harder to find and get for those who indulge in drugs like pot. Please tell your kids!
Mexico-Watcher
I agree with some of your points, especially about youth use. But, it has been proven, alcohol is much more a gateway drug than pot. Pot does not have nearly the disinhibitor effect that alcohol does. Effects of course vary from person to person, but marijuana is proven to actually improve focus. I still don't want people driving or, doing inherently dangerous tasks while high. As soon as the Gov goes totally legal with pot, then it should be treated like alcohol. As long as you're not high on the job, it's none of your employers business what you do on your own time. And like any intoxicant, if you can't stay sober for your shift, then you need treatment. I own a legal pot shop in the Pac.NW...my customers range from 21 to 1 89 yr old regular, who buys CBD for his muscle, and joint pain, and buys weed to smoke as a sleep aid, and to just Relax. Pot is not the Devil's lettuce.
Delete@12:55 Right you are! Please see Mexico-Watcher's post. I have worked for large corporations and State /County bureaucracies and know about actual cases where employees have been let go "before" their probationary periods were up. Insurance companies (behind the scenes) have direct and indirect ways of profiling people and of weeding out the potentially harmful.
ReplyDeleteOne insurance detective I knew worked undercover in a large electronics plant. His job was to find slackers, thieves, drug users, and "undesirables". He was moved from plant to plant and used by different corporations. The guy was a true professional chameleon who could work with the "suits and ties" as well as the grunts digging ditches. Loved his job, busting people.
Mexico-Watcher
stay safe everyone !!
ReplyDeletefocus on the positives !!
4:43 the positives are OK, Thank you. Don't bother...
DeleteThe negatives are what screw everything and everybody, the most people try to see beyond them the closer they get to us, and yet "positive people" coming out the Negative Trojan Horse of Positive keeps giving them enemies of everybody the ball and both sides of the playing field and the benefit of the doubt. Exorcise the negatives once and for all, then we can work something out and stay positive.
With appropriate restrictions and caution I do not have any negatives against mota. But when money for dispensary marijuana goes to terrorists I draw the line. I doubt whether 10% of the so-called rush to purchase dispensary mota was real. It may be garbage with sticks and seeds but like with RIPPLE mind-numb Mexican mota gets the job done, only it's legal to smoke garbage in public. As Cheech Marin once quoted "Sucker must be a quarter-pounder"
ReplyDeleteMarjuana needs to be completely legal ! Enough off this prohibition. Let responsible hard working adults make there own choices.
ReplyDelete8:59 how come nobody is lobbying to make money more valuable than grifa? Legal tender is more satisfying in your pockets, beleeme, it may be taxed at the gas pump, at the store, it the more you keep the more you have, compared to grifa that holds no value compared to the risk of illegal or the expense of legal dealing.
DeleteHold on to your mkney bohs and girls,
And let grifa dealers sell it to their putas madres...
Yes, sell your pinchi grifa to your puta madre!
DeleteSounds really POLITICALLY CORRECT.
"just say No" is like for pussies.
Viva el Dinero in my Pockets.