Headlines across social media are streaming the idea of a legitimate medical marijuana program in Texas. But if the Lone Star State is going to expand the Texas Compassionate Use Program (TCUP) in 2019, it will have to do so in firm opposition to the Sheriff’s Association of Texas (SAT).
Last week, Representative Eddie Lucio III submitted his long awaited medical marijuana legislation House Bill 1365. It seeks to add several qualifying conditions, as well as lifting the THC cap restrictions. This particular bill is actually an updated version of HB 2107, a 2017 house bill that gained the support of over half the Texas House of Representatives and passed out of committee. Lucio III is a Democrat of House District 38 in the Rio Grande Valley:
However, this is Texas: the land of marijuana prohibition. In an official public statement regarding a request for comment on medical cannabis bill HB 1365, SAT submitted the following:
This should really come as no surprise. Back in November of 2018 when marijuana bills were being prefiled, the legislative director for SAT made their intentions known. Jackson County Sheriff, A.J. Louderback, argued that medical programs in other states, and marijuana legalization in general, has led to spikes in crime and “devastating social losses.”
When contacting SAT, we were referred to a comprehensive 2014 manifesto created to educate Texas Law Enforcement on the dangers of marijuana legalization.
Now, not all is gloom and doom. There is clearly not a unified front in the realm of Texas Sheriff Departments. A few of the metropolitan areas, like Harris and Travis Counties, have Sheriffs and District Attornies working together to defer marijuana arrests, instead giving out civil fines and drug classes.
Despite the majority of Texans who overwhelmingly support marijuana reform in 2019, as noted by SAT, there will be stiff resistance from the upper echelons of Texas Legislative Law Enforcement. A century of marijuana prohibition will not go quietly in the night.
***Cover Image credited to ClayGervaisGibson.com