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Ken Paxton is no stranger to hostility towards weed. This January, he sued the cities of Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin and Denton who had all decriminalized weed. Two have been dismissed so far in Austin and San Marcos, and one settlement was made in Elgin because decriminalization never materialized.
Now, after Dallas has voted in a wide majority (67%) to decriminalize weed, Paxton is suing to stop it from happening.
“Cities cannot pick and choose which State laws they follow. The City of Dallas has no authority to override Texas drug laws or prohibit the police from enforcing them. This is a backdoor attempt to violate the Texas Constitution, and any city that tries to constrain police in this fashion will be met swiftly with a lawsuit by my office,” Paxton says in a press release.
The nonprofit that led the movements to decriminalize in Texas, shot back with their own statement, saying “this is not the first time that our marijuana decriminalization propositions have been described as in conflict with state law, it is important to clarify that this is not true—we drafted these propositions carefully in order to comply with current state law. Decriminalization is not legalization, but instead a change to enforcement policy.”
Because of the work that the nonprofit put into shaping these propositions, it seems that all this will amount to is a lot of wasted time and effort on behalf of everyone involved, which is perhaps exactly what Paxton is looking to accomplish.
Read more over at Marijuana Moment.
