AUSTIN — One day after the Texas House overwhelmingly voted to virtually decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana for first-time offenders, the president of the Texas Senate effectively drove a stake through the heart of the measure.

"I join with those House Republicans who oppose this step toward legalization of marijuana," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a tweet Tuesday morning.

Patrick's disdain for rolling back marijuana laws was never in doubt. But state Rep. Joe Moody, the El Paso Democrat who passed House Bill 63 on Monday, had hope to ease opposition by leaving a criminal penalty intact while also offering a fast-track to expunge the records of those caught for the first time with an ounce or less.

He pushed back that his legislation was opening the door toward legalization. Instead, he said the measure help reduce local jail crowding, free police officers to deal with more serious matters and remove the stigma of a criminal record for otherwise upstanding citizens.

That argument won the day in the GOP-dominated House where the bill won preliminary passage by a vote of 98-43 on Monday and by a 103-42 margin on the final vote Tuesday.

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But on the Senate side, Houston Democrat John Whitmire expressed hesitation about bringing it to the floor for a vote. Whitmire chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and told the Texas Observer that taking up a potentially divisive measure with less than four weeks before the session ends would be counter-productive.

“I try not to bring issues that are going to be time-consuming if they’re not going to get support,” Whitmire told the publication. “At this stage, time is value. I still don’t want to do a show-and-tell. I’d like to have a hearing on something that’s got some traction.”

Even as Patrick, who sets the Senate's agenda, pronounced the marijuana bill dead on arrival, Moody was not giving up, or giving in to the argument that he was seeking to legalize marijuana.

"Mr. Patrick is the odd man out here, and the ball is in his court," Moody told the House while suggesting the lieutenant governor was off base by announcing his opposition in a tweet rather than telling he and his bill's supporters personally.