Panel considers bills to loosen marijuana penalties





Keep clicking to see states with legal marijuana. Alaska Cannabis Club CEO Charlo Greene smokes a joint in Anchorage. Texas lawmakers are considering measures to revise the state’s criminal code regarding small-scale possession of pot.Keep clicking to see states with legal marijuana. less



Keep clicking to see Alaska Cannabis Club CEO Charlo Greene smokes a joint in Anchorage. Texas lawmakers are considering measures to revise the state’s criminal code regarding small-scale possession of pot.Keep clicking to see ... more Photo: Mark Thiessen, STF Photo: Mark Thiessen, STF Image 1 of / 39 Caption Close Panel considers bills to loosen marijuana penalties 1 / 39 Back to Gallery

AUSTIN — While some states have altogether decriminalized marijuana possession and use, Texas lawmakers on Wednesday began in earnest to look at revising the state’s criminal code regarding small-scale possession.

The House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee considered a series of bills from Houston representatives that would generally reduce marijuana penalties to include tickets and fines, instead of sending an accused offender to jail – effectively reclassifying them as civil penalties and not criminal ones.

After nearly four hours in a packed committee room, the panel neared 1 a.m. and continued to hear emotional testimony on the marijuana reform bills early into Thursday morning.

The banner measure, House Bill 507, by Rep. Joe Moody, an El Paso Democrat, would reduce the offense for possession of less than 1 ounce from a criminal penalty to a civil penalty, similar to traffic violations. Anything more than an ounce of marijuana would still be considered a Class B misdemeanor, Moody said.

“A civil penalty system keeps people out of jail and on the job,” he told the panel. “It helps us close a huge money pit so we can make better investments with our resources.”

A proposal by Rep. Gene Wu, a Democrat from Houston, would create a new Class C misdemeanor penalty for possession less than .35 ounces. Wu’s measure allows police to ticket the offender, though penalties could increase if someone is ticketed multiple times a year.

“My bill is not about helping people smoke pot,” he said. “I’m trying to make sure law enforcement can do their job but not incur a lot of the negative consequences they do now.”

A fellow Houston Democrat, Rep. Harold Dutton, proposed House Bill 414, which would change marijuana possession less than one ounce into a Class C misdemeanor, including a ticketing system similar to Wu’s.

“One of these days, I knew we’d get to this point,” said Dutton, who introduced the same bill more than a decade ago. “When I was here in 2003, I was a lonely man, and today I’m not that at all.”

House Bill 1115, authored by longtime Rep. Senfronia Thompson, another Houston Democrat, would make police issue a citation for anyone carrying up to four ounces of marijuana, instead of being arrested. Her proposal, however, does not reduce the penalty of pot possession, like the other bills, which can currently result in jail time.

The most wide-reaching proposal, House Bill 2165, came from Republican Rep. David Simpson, who wants to scrap all marijuana prohibition laws in Texas.

“It enables responsible people to use the plant for good,” Simpson said. “There are people who abuse tobacco and alcohol, but we don’t put them in prison unless they harm someone else.”

Lawmakers have introduced similar bills in past sessions, but those proposals have never seemed to get much traction in the conservative Legislature.

While both chambers are still dominated by Republicans, however, the bills’ supporters hope that the 2015 session will at least show a modest gain on their issues, as marijuana reform legalization becomes a national trend.

Even getting committee approval, advocates have said, is a sign of progress for when they attempt to bring up similar legislation in future sessions.