DENTON
Denton residents will decide in November whether to decriminalize low-level marijuana possession.
For months, Decriminalize Denton and other groups worked to gather signatures in support of the ballot measure. After presenting a petition to the city in May, Mayor Gerard Hudspeth and other council members on Tuesday unanimously moved to put the proposed city ordinance up to vote on Nov. 8, according to the Denton Record Chronicle.
The election falls on the same day as the general election, when Texans across the state will pick congressional, state and local leaders.
Tristan Seikel, the executive director of Decriminalize Denton, called cannabis decriminalization a “common sense, justice oriented policy.” Marijuana is illegal in Texas with limited medical exceptions.
“This ordinance acknowledges that people are going to use cannabis one way or another,” Seikel said. “It’s really a reactive policy to deal with people once they get caught, once they’re dealing with the criminal justice system... as a way to prevent them from going through that process and potentially having their life upended all at the expense of the tax payer.”
The proposed city ordinance, a draft of which was on the agenda for this week’s meeting, asks voters to decide whether the city should “eliminate low-level marijuana enforcement.” If approved, Denton police would no longer issue citations or make arrests for Class A or Class B misdemeanor possession of marijuana, with some exceptions.
In Texas, it’s a Class B misdemeanor to have 2 ounces or less of marijuana, a crime that could result in up to 180 days in jail and/or a fine of up to $2,000. Having 2 to 4 ounces of marijuana is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and/or a $4,000 fine.
Exceptions would be in cases when misdemeanor marijuana offenses were part of a high priority felony narcotics case or part of a violent felony investigation. The ordinance also stipulates that, with some exceptions, city funds cannot be used for THC concentration testing and that the smell of marijuana or hemp would not probable cause for search or seizure.
While council members opted to let voters decide, some raised concerns about the proposal during Tuesday’s meeting, including Council Member Chris Watts, a former Denton mayor, who was concerned about the prohibition on searching a vehicle based on marijuana odor. He questioned whether there have been instances where a vehicle was searched based on smell and more severe law violations were discovered. Police Chief Frank Dixon said there have been times when officers recovered illegal firearms and other higher level narcotics during roadside investigations.
An email seeking comment from the department was not immediately returned.
The ballot measure in Denton comes after Austin voters in May passed a decriminalization measure. The Austin push, and others across the state, have been in coordination with Ground Game Texas, a group that works to “achieve progressive wins for Texas communities.”
Texas has taken some steps in the way of medical marijuana, but it hasn’t been decriminalized or legalized on a statewide level.
“We don’t want to just wait indefinitely for either our elected officials to finally get with the program and change their policy or... these elected official to finally get voted out and replaced with people that do,” Seikel said. “We know that there are already plenty of people working on that, so we decided to try to affect change where we can, and for us that looks like the local level.”
This story was originally published July 28, 2022 5:00 PM.
