Dr. Tre Pennie, the GOP candidate vying for Texas’ 30th Congressional District, is upfront about marijuana reform.
Now, this is something the cannabis reform community doesn’t see quite often. Usually, Democratic candidates make it clear about their stances. And they are often very open to the possibility of cannabis reform. Tre Pennie has cannabis reform as part of his EARN-IT platform. EARN stands for Economic-Academic-Reward-Network-In-Training: Cannabis. The platform speaks to “Benefits of Legalizing Cannabis relating to Education, Job Creation and Business Ownership.”
The platform builds upon the MORE act. US Congress planned to vote on the act back in September. But, Democrats punted the vote off to after the elections. “In preparation for this legislation (MORE ACT), an addendum has been added to the original plan called EARN-IT: Cannabis. This supplemental strategy takes into account factors impacting: law enforcement procedures, criminal enforcement, economic impact, education and training, and jobs. This plan is not advocating for “smoke shops” like liquor stores to be added to the community on every corner, but instead a more robust plan of developing cannabis pharmacy-like facilities with skilled and educated technicians.“
Learn how to become a medical cannabis patient in Texas
The Goal
Then, Tre Pennie lays out the goal in the plan. That with proper federal regulation, oversight, and training, we (as a country) can begin to lift failing communities out of poverty, reduce minority incarceration rates related to marijuana offenses and create sustainable markets resistant to online marketplace monopolies.
“From a Republican perspective, we don’t want people relying on the government, right? So, we’ve got to teach them a merit-based skill to be able to take care of themselves. We can’t talk about people picking themselves up by their bootstraps if we won’t give them any boots to pick themselves up by.”
The plan is dependent on the MORE Act. Secondly, this would require Texas to legalize marijuana. But the inclination will be there as Texas drug scheduling follows federal drug scheduling automatically. Now Texas will likely be facing a battle with that, considering its track record on the subject.
The Texas House speaker, in July, stated that legalizing cannabis could help resolve the state’s budget shortfall. He then added that he doesn’t support the policy change at all.
Pennie is aiming to unseat incumbent Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D) on November 3rd.