The Republican attorney general of Texas has already filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn a local marijuana decriminalization ordinance in Dallas that voters passed at the ballot earlier this month.
While 67 percent of Dallas voters approved the reform measure, Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is continuing his so far unsuccessful campaign to reverse local decriminalization policies, filing suit against the state’s third most populous city on Wednesday.
Numerous Texas cities have enacted local decriminalization laws in recent years, and, in January, Paxton similarly sought to block the reform in Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin and Denton.
State district judges dismissed two of the lawsuits—which argue that state law prohibiting marijuana preempts the local policies—in Austin and San Marcos. The city of Elgin reached a settlement, with the local government pointing out that decriminalization was never implemented there despite voter approval of the initiative.
“Cities cannot pick and choose which State laws they follow,” the attorney general said in a press release on Thursday. “The City of Dallas has no authority to override Texas drug laws or prohibit the police from enforcing them. This is a backdoor attempt to violate the Texas Constitution, and any city that tries to constrain police in
Read full article on Marijuana Moment
