Author Topic: Flirting with more rational pot policies  (Read 545 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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Flirting with more rational pot policies
« on: July 31, 2019, 07:33:11 pm »
Grits for Breakfast 7/31/2019

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2019/07/flirting-with-more-rational-pot-policies.html

Grits returned yesterday from a much-needed vacation in cooler climes, only to find Texas #cjreform news gushing like a fire hydrant pried open to beat the summertime heat.

Just before I left town, we learned that the Texas Legislature had altered marijuana laws to make it difficult-to-impossible to prosecute low-level marijuana cases. Bexar County DA Joe Gonzalez took leadership on the issue, announcing he would not prosecute possession cases without a lab result. And the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's editorial board quoted Grits in a post calling for District Attorneys to use the opportunity as a natural experiment to see what would happen if pot were decriminalized.

Notably, while on vacation in Quebec, Grits got a first-hand look at how marijuana legalization plays out in the real world. Two words: boring and lucrative. Pot smoking wasn't any more prevalent in public than previously, said the locals, but the dispensaries were bustling with commerce and filled with satisfied customers. Prices were 40-50% less than black-market prices in Texas, even though Canadian taxes on weed are significant. All in all, it seemed to this writer like the epitome of a win-win policy; just a very grown-up way to handle the matter.

Offline rustynail

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Re: Flirting with more rational pot policies
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2019, 07:40:16 pm »
not a lie 

Offline Elderberry

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Re: Flirting with more rational pot policies
« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2019, 07:44:33 pm »
Didn't bother me none.

Offline truth_seeker

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Re: Flirting with more rational pot policies
« Reply #3 on: July 31, 2019, 07:46:38 pm »
Hopefully Texans are smart enough to not make the same mistakes as California.

California enacted voter initiatives legalizing MJ, effectively making thefts under $950 mere citations, and drastically reducing prison times.

Cops on the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle will validate this only under anonymity.

Drug users, use other drugs.


MJleads to meth, leads to opioids, leads to heroin.



T
"God must love the common man, he made so many of them.�  Abe Lincoln

Offline Elderberry

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Re: Flirting with more rational pot policies
« Reply #4 on: July 31, 2019, 07:59:47 pm »
Pot smoking was a phase that me and my friends went thru. None of us have taken a toke in years. Most have even quit tobacco as well.

I just wish quitting alcohol was as easy. I have had several friends that have died from alcohol.

Offline Elderberry

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Re: Flirting with more rational pot policies
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2019, 11:02:06 am »
Houston Chronicle

DA is right not to prosecute low-level pot offenses [Editorial]
By The Editorial Board July 26, 2019

Quote
District attorneys in some of the state’s most populous counties, including Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, have stopped prosecuting misdemeanor marijuana cases. Not because of much-needed, common-sense criminal justice reform or any new regulation, but thanks to the old law of unintended consequences.

The Legislature was on its way last session to loosening marijuana laws — bringing Texas in line with many other states and with shifting public opinion. Although the House voted overwhelmingly to reduce the penalties for possession of small amounts of pot, the effort was stopped cold in the Senate by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

But another bill, which legalized hemp — a product that comes from the same plant as marijuana — has led to de facto decriminalization. Language in the law differentiates between pot and hemp based on the presence of THC, the psychoactive ingredient that produces the drug’s “high.” Anything with more than 0.3 percent of THC is considered marijuana, anything below is newly legal hemp.

That change means the simple tests used to determine if something was pot can no longer be used effectively, since they only reveal if something contains cannabinoids — not its THC content. For that, more expensive tests are needed. What used to take minutes would now involve developing new procedures and would take hours. If edibles are involved, labs must purchase equipment that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to make an accurate determination, experts said.

Many district attorneys have reacted responsibly to the Legislature’s failure of foresight, choosing to forgo prosecuting small-time marijuana possession rather than taxing already limited resources. This is smart policy and builds upon already existing efforts to divert low-level marijuana users from jail and into other programs. Diversion in Harris County, which began under Ogg in 2017, allows anyone caught with less than 4 ounces of marijuana to take a four-hour education class and avoid an arrest, ticket or court appearance. Ogg credited the diversion program with 14,000 fewer arrests in its first two years and for county savings of $35 million.

More at link.