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To grasp America’s dysfunctional angle about marijuana, think about the 1936 cult basic movie Reefer Insanity.
Initially a morality piece financed by a church group to get dad and mom speaking to their kids about drug use, the movie was recut by the producer right into a campy melodrama that options highschool children being victimized by drug pushers who promote them potent marijuana. It results in homicide, tried rape, hit-and-run accidents, hallucinations, madness and suicide.
The movie and different bogus propaganda helped produce stricter federal and state legal guidelines towards marijuana use and gross sales. That was a departure from earlier in our nation’s historical past, when marijuana plant production was critical for fibers used to make rope and paper. Docs had been enthusiastic about utilizing marijuana for medicinal functions.
After a long time in obscurity, Reefer Insanity was rediscovered within the early Seventies. It grew to become a success on the midnight film circuit, the place viewers would giggle on the outrageous characterization of marijuana customers. Attitudes about marijuana started to vary, with federal officers contemplating the decriminalization of marijuana. Supporters of marijuana legalization used the movie to spotlight wrongheaded concepts concerning the crop. And no person, save the uninformed, known as it “reefer” anymore.
Reefer Insanity-type fears returned through the Ronald Reagan presidency and past. That period produced stricter legal guidelines that resulted in lengthy jail sentences for customers and sellers, in addition to missed alternatives to discover how hashish could possibly be used for an array of medicinal functions, together with ache reduction, glaucoma and most cancers remedy, and far more.
However now attitudes about marijuana are once more altering throughout the nation. Thirty-seven states and Washington have legalized marijuana for medical makes use of. And 19 states have made marijuana authorized for grownup leisure use.
Final week President Joe Biden pardoned thousands of people convicted of straightforward marijuana possession below federal regulation, a transfer seen as a step towards legalization.
Minds are altering in conservative states as properly. Oklahoma permits marijuana use for medical causes, as does Louisiana. Close by Arkansas is contemplating legalizing marijuana for private use.
What about Texas?
Polls show strong support for marijuana legislation.
Roughly 51% of Texans have mentioned they both help or strongly help legalizing the drug for leisure use, in keeping with a recent Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll. And 67% of these surveyed mentioned they’d help legalization for medical use.
The Texas Legislature bolstered medical use final 12 months when it expanded the state’s medical marijuana program to incorporate all types of post-traumatic stress dysfunction and most cancers.
The Legislature convenes in January, and a few lawmakers are anticipated to construct on laws permitted through the earlier lawmaking session.
State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, is a powerful proponent of legal justice reform, and mentioned lawmakers will deal with points round marijuana legalization.
“A powerful majority of the Legislature is able to ship a invoice that ends the extreme legal penalties for leaf and focus hashish to the governor’s desk, and at the least as many legislators are considering increasing medical use,” Moody mentioned. “I believe we’re quickly getting there on a authorized market that will probably be a powerhouse for the Texas financial system and permit us to cut back taxes.”
Moody mentioned “at minimal, I anticipate public hearings, the place we discover what that coverage appears like in Texas.”
Analysts agree that some Texas motion on marijuana would happen subsequent 12 months.
“I believe that the governor will develop the licensing capability within the state,” mentioned lobbyist and political marketing consultant Invoice Miller. “Availability will probably be slightly extra far ranging for extra licensing. It’s transferring, nevertheless it’s not going to maneuver in a single day.”
Miller mentioned legalization for leisure use would nonetheless stay unlikely in Texas, however nationwide motion might happen.
“In the end, after we get there, it’ll be as a result of it’s a federal deal,” he mentioned. “The feds are going to do it.”
There additionally is also motion on lowering legal penalties for breaking marijuana legal guidelines.
In Texas, possession of as much as 2 ounces is a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by as much as 180 days in jail and a high-quality of as much as $2,000. Possession of greater than 2 ounces might lead to as much as a 12 months in jail, and greater than 4 ounces is a felony.
However Dallas police stopped arresting folks final 12 months caught with small amounts of marijuana meant for private use.
Each Gov. Greg Abbott and his Democratic rival Beto O’Rourke help some stage of decriminalization. O’Rourke’s position is way extra permissive than Abbott’s, with a plan to fully decriminalize marijuana and expunge the criminal records of those arrested for possession. Abbott, in the meantime, would cut back the authorized penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana to a Class C misdemeanor.
O’Rourke, who as soon as wrote a e-book on decriminalizing marijuana when he was on the El Paso Metropolis Council, says tax income from its authorized use could possibly be used to fund public training and scale back property taxes. It was El Paso, in 1915, that grew to become the primary American metropolis to outlaw marijuana use.
“Increasing marijuana for medicinal use and extra legal justice reform is the low-hanging fruit,” mentioned state Rep. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas.
A number of GOP lawmakers contacted for this column both ignored questions or declined to touch upon the report. The Texas Republican Celebration’s platform has known as for legal justice reform associated to marijuana.
It’s clear change is happening in Texas, although at a gradual tempo.
Earlier than 1973, Texas had the harshest hashish legal guidelines of any state within the nation, with possession of any quantity categorized as a felony offense punishable by two years to life in jail.
“Bear in mind within the Seventies, in the event you received convicted of marijuana you bought a life sentence in Texas,” Miller mentioned. “That’s how far we’ve come, which is a great distance. I don’t suppose persons are scared about weed anymore. Sudden change is jolting. Gradual change is accepted.”
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