Thursday, October 29, 2020

Hemp law radically reduced pot prosecutions in Texas: Don't go back

Readers will recall that the Texas Legislature last year legalized "hemp" without a way for prosecutors to distinguish between legal hemp and illegal marijuana, which come from the same plant. To successfully prosecute, police would need to test the plant's THC levels, but few jurisdictions have the equipment to perform the task, much less staff to handle the extra work.

The result: marijuana arrests and prosecutions plummeted statewide, with many jurisdictions eschewing them altogether. Grits dubbed it the Great Texas Hemp Hiatus. The Texas Department of Public Safety now has technology to perform the testing, but not sufficient staff; they have refused to provide testing for misdemeanor marijuana possession cases. 

In this light, the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence was given an "interim charge" to study the questions raised by the hemp law, but COVID has prevented much progress. So they solicited written testimony, due next week, in lieu of holding a hearing. I wrote a short, two-page missive on the subject on behalf of Just Liberty. Anyone interested should give it a read. Here's a notable excerpt arguing that, when pot arrests declined, many good things happened:
police focused on other duties, jails avoided extra prisoners during COVID, court caseloads shrank, taxpayer-funded hemp testing was (largely) avoided, and counties avoided paying for some indigent defendants’ lawyers. Commercial hemp was legally harvested and sold. And nobody cared. Not really. There has been no hue and cry. If anything, the public hue and cry favors full-blown pot legalization.

In the meantime, more than 40,000 Texans who would otherwise have been arrested in FY20 avoided prosecution for pot possession, which meant they not only avoided a criminal record but also had more money to support their families when the COVID crisis hit. Would anyone be better off if 40,000 extra families, many of them already losing income from a virus-caused economic depression, were saddled with fines, court debt, probation and drug testing fees, etc.? Not at all! Everyone is better off because those prosecutions didn’t occur.

Aggressive marijuana enforcement does more harm than good and the natural experiment conducted in Texas over the last year shows that there are no negative consequences when it suddenly stops. There’s no need to “fix” the hemp law or spend millions more on specialized testing.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stop the Presses! Don't spread this around!

If some politician who wants to be seen as fighting the collapse of the PAX Americana sees this; he or she will be sorely tempted to pass "feel good" legislation to undo the benefits of the Hemp Law.

No good deed goes unpunished.

Gritsforbreakfast said...

Oh, they're already well aware, believe me!

Anonymous said...

One from my inbox today:
Texas NORML
October 30, 2020
Early Voting : October 13-30, 2020 | Election Day: November 3, 2020.
In Texas, citizen-initiated ballot propositions are not allowed, so elected officials at the state and federal levels are responsible for upholding or reforming current marijuana laws. Elections offer an opportunity for voters to decide who will represent them when these decisions are made!

We worked with our friends at Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy to survey candidates seeking the Democratic and Republican nominations for the Texas House, Texas Senate, U.S. House, and U.S. Senate. Here's our Texas Marijuana Policy Voter Guide for the 2020 General Election.: https://www.texasnorml.org/votersguide/

Anonymous said...

In my opinion: The Superior Being GOD says we are to do no harm. The Ten Commandments are for our guidance. If we choose to violate our own bodies, it is our choice. If we violate another's body that is a crime. GOD does not demand us to do anything - why does man.

Codes, rules and regulations are man's law, not God's.

Anonymous said...

Yes. This is the big problem with America. Too many Americans are still sober and leading productive lives, instead of pursuing disreputable foreign vices and using narcotics. We need public policy that discourages sobriety and encourages drug use. Tell me, when you get this, how long will you wait before the next demand is Seattle-style free needle dispensaries?

The one lesson we've learned in every other state that's tried this particular experiment is that if we give you people an inch you'll take a mile, and we'll be worse off than if we'd stood firm. You want to smoke dagga all day? Go to Africa and smoke dagga all day with the natives. No nation where such vices were commonplace has ever accomplished anything of note.

Anonymous said...

Ok boomer

Gritsforbreakfast said...

@7:41, laws on alcohol encourage sobriety but allow drinking, and marijuana is safer than alcohol, by a longshot.

gravyrug said...

"Pursuing disreputable foreign vices" is a dead giveaway. Marijuana laws have always been about controlling minorities. Yet another reason they should be done away with.

Anonymous said...

Gravyrug
Not sure one can broadly say “marijuana laws have always been about controlling minorities”. You have Asian, Cubans and other minority communities/groups in the US that don’t seem to be controlled or otherwise have widespread problems with marijuana laws.

Gritsforbreakfast said...

But 4:15, pot laws were originally aimed at Latinos then almost immediately broadened to include black folks, so the two biggest minority groups in the US for most of the 20th century. Gravyrug's statement may be a little broad, if you stare at the edges with a magnifying glass, but not too far off.

Anonymous said...

So you’re saying certain minority groups are more prone to commit specific crimes compared to other minorities? Does this assertion extend beyond drug crimes?

Gritsforbreakfast said...

No, 5:20, you racist POS. I'm saying certain crimes were really racist political statements masquerading as crimes and have always been enforced as such. Similar to how your comment is really a racist sentiment masquerading as an innocent question. See the parallel?

James S. said...

I wish someone would tell the geniuses in Tarrant County. They are routinely sending out even tiny amounts of pot for THC testing (to an outside service) and then billing the defendant as part of the "restitution."

James S.

TheLawEnforcementProject said...

Leaving aside the 100% subjective "moral" aspect, the objective, glaring fact remains; prohibition has never accomplished it's goals. It just does not work.

TheLawEnforcementProject said...

And remember, hippies are a minority group too

TheLawEnforcementProject said...

Grits, name-calling does not help you in your noble work.