BY STANTON BRASHER Three bills that take different approaches to reforming Texas’ marijuana laws got a hearing before the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence on Wednesday. Supporters packed the only committee hearing scheduled on the bills in either chamber. With the clock running out on the session, other hearings aren’t…
The most progressive plan yet to fix Texas’ backwards marijuana policy has come from, of all places, a Longview Republican. A new bill from State Rep. David Simpson would control pot just like any other plant. “I am proposing that this plant be regulated like tomatoes, jalapeños or coffee,” Simpson…
Kevin Eltife and Stephanie Klick are taking the safest approach possible to an issue that, for them, is politically dangerous. The two legislators, both Republicans, have put themselves behind legalizing the narrowest sliver of medical cannabis. The Tyler state senator and Fort Worth state representative want to OK the use…
Hard to believe just looking at their mugshots, but Julia Thacker and Keith Fields were running a medium-scale marijuana farm out of their Southlake home, police say. On January 12, cops received a call suggesting that they check on the safety of an infant who lived at 125 Sweet St…
Good news for E. Cannabis Unum supporters across the country: Texas, land of big businesses and economic prosperity, could stand to gain a ton of money from legalizing marijuana — more than $166 million per year, by some estimates. That’s a Texas Miracle if we’ve ever heard one. Of course,…
A new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) collects data from each state to determine the use of alcohol and drugs. Among the findings? We Texans like our booze, and we like a lot of it. The report divides the findings by age group and…
Ever since a doctor from Fort Worth became one of two Americans recently infected with the Ebola virus on a mercy trip in Liberia, the Western public has developed a renewed interest in the rare disease, often described as incurable. For researchers like University of Texas virologist Dr. Thomas Geisbert,…
For a thankfully brief period in the mid-aughts, I lived in Abilene. Having experienced it in all of its splendor, I can say without hesitation that it is one of the most boring places on Earth. If you can avoid it, don’t go there, ever, for any reason. If you…
In a perfect example of why it’s best — if you’re looking to run a successful drug empire — to keep the manufacturing and distribution arms of your outfit separate, the Drug Enforcement Administration moved to seize 35 financial accounts, six cars, jewelery, almost $20,000 in cash, seven gold Canadian…
U.S. Representative Steve Stockman is the Texas lawmaker who is probably least likely to whip out a joint at the party and share it with everyone. He likes families, straight people, guns and fertilized eggs that might one day become babies. He hates liberals. Not as much as he hates…
Some day, in the very far distant future, Texas may take a cue from Colorado and legalize marijuana. For now, it’s taking some very hesitant first steps toward decriminalization, such as a proposal last legislative session reduce possession of an ounce or less of weed from a class B to…
No one seriously believes anymore in the Reefer Madness depiction of marijuana use, in which this new-fangled devil weed transforms otherwise upstanding teenagers into murderous sociopaths. Even some otherwise staunch social conservatives (e.g. Rick Perry) are beginning to embrace some degree of decriminalization as a fair and necessary step toward…
In case you missed the September 2012 issue of Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, here’s a heads up: phenazepam, a powerful anti-anxiety drug sometimes sold as “Zannie” or “bonsai,” is hitting the U.S. streets. It’s not exactly a new product — it was developed in the 1970s by Soviet scientists to…
At the time, we never did get an official explanation for why DFW NORML was barred from participating in last year’s Dallas St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival. Presumably, it was like the marijuana group said at the time: Organizers simply didn’t think weed meshed with the event’s new “family-friendly”…
Marijuana is still very much illegal in Texas, and, whatever Governor Rick Perry says about “decriminalization”, it will remain so for the immediate future. But the tide of public opinion is turning fast, and it’s not so hard to imagine a day when Texas relaxes its weed ban. It almost…
In the weeks since marijuana became legal in Colorado, there have been a thick plume of stories on how to plan a pot-smoking vacation. Even The Dallas Morning News, which still blanches at the notion of fully legalized pot, offered a buyer’s guide. The pot tourism boom, however large it…
It’s not often that Texas Governor Rick Perry has occasion to wax at length about his views on drug policy, but when you find yourself in Davos, Switzerland, on a World Economic Forum panel devoted to the “drug dilemma,” there isn’t much else to talk about. This morning’s discussion (it…
Bath salts haven’t gone away. Just this week, a California smoke shop owner was arrested with half a ton of the stuff. But with a federal crackdown and heightened awareness of their face-eating side effects, their use (or at least the panicked reporting on it) is on the decline. Now…
At this point, it’s probably wise, even if you can’t bring yourself to forego shady workout supplements completely, to at least steer clear of stuff produced by Dallas-based USP Labs. Over the summer, the Food and Drug Administration forced the company to destroy $8 million worth of product containing dimethlyamylamine,…
When Shannon Herrin’s teenage son found his mom dead in her garage in August, Mineral Wells police were perplexed. There was no evidence of murder — no trauma, no signs of a struggle, no one with any apparent reason to want her dead — and yet there was the indisputable…
Their teachers could tell something was off. The girls, six of them, all eighth graders at Texas City’s Blocker Middle School, were acting “zombie-like” and “delirious” at school on Monday, according to Houston’s ABC affiliate. School officials called an ambulance, but not before finding small pieces of paper wrapped in…
The pendulum of public opinion on marijuana policy has been swinging rather dramatically in recent years away from prohibition and toward a more libertarian approach. Hence last year’s decision by voters in Colorado and Washington to legalize the stuff and the corresponding announcement by the Justice Department that, so long…
