Similar resolutions have been passed in Denton, Killeen, Austin and San Marcos. In most cases, the effort has been met with some form of resistance that’s kept the voter-approved law from being put into action. Denton, specifically, has experienced difficulty on this front from not only Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton, but from within its own government and police department, which have never quite figured out what to do with 2022’s overwhelmingly approved Proposition B.
While we wait to see if Paxton challenges the new Dallas charter amendment, the City Council has already begun heating up its own debate involving the topic. On Tuesday, The Dallas Morning News reported that some on the city council wanted to add a clause to the prop that would keep the city from enforcing it until recreational marijuana becomes legal in Texas.
“The core of this is that state law preempts our ability to enforce this ordinance, and we need to respect state law and follow state law,” said council member Cara Mendelsohn, who moved to add the clause, according to the Morning News. “And if not, we’ll be seeing a lawsuit associated with it.”
A vast majority of the council voted to reject the proposed clause, resulting in a memo from interim Dallas Police Chief Michael Igo to all Dallas officers that they are not to enforce possession of marijuana laws for up to 4-ounces of pot.
“The current policy regarding possession of marijuana, two ounces or less, is now obsolete,” read the memo.
This is such a waste of your tax dollars. 4oz of marijuana is illegal in TX & USA. Now @KenPaxtonTX will have to waste his time suing @CityOfDallas and the city will waste tax dollars defending a losing case. We've put ourselves & @DallasPD in a terrible position to violate our…
— Cara Mendelsohn 🟦 (@caraathome) November 19, 2024
After the vote, Mendelsohn took to X to further express her thoughts.
"This is such a waste of your tax dollars. 4oz of marijuana is illegal in TX & USA. Now @KenPaxtonTX will have to waste his time suing @CityOfDallas and the city will waste tax dollars defending a losing case," the social media post stated. "We've put ourselves & @DallasPD in a terrible position to violate our oath of office to uphold the law."
Ground Game Texas, the group behind Proposition R in Dallas, as well as many of the other weed decriminalization efforts in Texas, signaled victory following the interim chief’s memo.
“While 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,” a news release stated. “Decriminalization is not legalization, but instead a change to enforcement policy.”
