Texas Bill Seeks To Allow Cities To Legalize Cannabis, But Would Abbott Sign It?

Get our free mobile app

House Bill 1937 was filed earlier this month (2/2023) by Representative Jessica Gonzalez (D- Dallas), which if passed would allow local governments the option of legalizing the recreational use of cannabis and creating tax revenue from it for the purpose of, "cannabis regulation, cannabis testing, government oversight and funding for schools."

This seems to me like an excellent compromise for large cities to generate income from what thousands and thousands of people are doing every day anyway while allowing other areas to remain in the dark ages, excuse me, regulate cannabis how they see fit.

However, I do see a couple of immediate problems here. For one- how does the cannabis get to those legal cities without traveling through non-legal cities? That could be overcome, I suppose, by growing the cannabis to be consumed in that area within that area, thus allowing Texas farmers the option to grow a plant that is much more suited to Texas weather and terrain than other crops which are less water-wise and require more pesticides.

However, if this bill were to see a vote, and that's a big "if", it would also have to be signed by Governor Greg Abbott, who has explicitly said he is against the legalization of cannabis for recreational use. To be fair, he has supported lowering penalties, but to be fair-fair he has also declined to pardon folks with cannabis convictions.

The vast majority of Texans want recreational legalized. I could give you poll result after poll result but to me, the most telling is that 52% of born-again Christians want it. If over half of one of the most conservative voting blocks want it, I mean, how much more support could it have?

Texas is leaving money on the table. Worse, it is cruel, inhumane, and unjust.