Texas House Committee Approves Full Marijuana Legalization Bill

On Wednesday, a bill that would allow possession and delivery of marijuana as early as September 2015, in the state of Texas, was passed by the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee 5-2.

In March, Simpson wrote an op-ed in the Texas Tribune called the “Christian case for drug law reform,” in which he said that he does not believe that God made marijuana as a “mistake that government needs to fix,” and he suggested that marijuana should be “regulated like tomatoes, jalapenos or coffee.”

“You would think our country’s history with alcohol prohibition – an era marked with bootlegging, organized crime, government corruption and a rise in crime in general – would have prevented us from making the same mistake again,” wrote Simpson. “But our current ‘war on drugs’ policies, though well intended, have accomplished the exact opposite, spurring a proliferation of ever-changing exotic designer drugs and a disregard for constitutional protections in the name of eliminated drugs at any cost. Just think of no-knock warrants, stop-and-frisk, civil asset forfeiture and billionaire drug lords.“

KSAT, the ABC affiliate in San Antonio, noted that although it is unlikely that the bill will reach the House floor before the legislative session ends on June 1, in a state where using marijuana for medicinal purposes is still illegal, advocates called the committee vote “unprecedented progress.”

The Texas Tribune reported that three committee Democrats and two Republicans voted in favor of the bill, while two Republicans, state Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano) and state Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano) voted against it.

Heather Fazio, the Texas Political Director for the Marijuana Policy Project, told KSAT that she believes “Marijuana prohibition’s days are numbered in the Lone Star State.”

“Texas voters recognize that punishing adults for consuming a substance that is safer than alcohol is a waste of law enforcement resources and an affront to individual liberty. It appears most of the committee members agree,” Fazio said. “State officials are increasingly becoming fed up with the failed federal government policy of marijuana prohibition, and they’re taking action.”

In Sept. 2014, Ben Swann released an episode of Truth in Media that documented the federal government’s involvement with marijuana. He revealed that although the government claimed cannabis cannot be used as medicine, it holds the patent on cannabis as medicine.

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Rachel Blevins

Rachel Blevins is a student at Texas Tech University who aspires to break the left/right paradigm in media and politics by pursuing truth and questioning authority as she establishes her journalism career. For story tips, contact rachel@truthinmedia.com