Dan Patrick Promises to Kill Marijuana Decriminalization Bill

Dan Patrick has a license to kill cannabis legislation (Photo by Jana Birchum)

A bill that would significantly reduce the penalties in Texas for being caught with a personal amount of marijuana passed in the House yesterday. But this morning, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick declared it “dead” in a tweet.

“Criminal Justice Chair @Whitmire_John is right that #HB 63 is dead in the @Texas Senate. I join with those House Republicans who oppose this step toward legalization of marijuana.”

Criminal Justice Chair @Whitmire_John is right that #HB 63 is dead in the @Texas Senate. I join with those House Republicans who oppose this step toward legalization of marijuana.

— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) April 30, 2019

Patrick has control over the Senate agenda and thus a license to kill legislation he dislikes, even one that – despite his tweet – enjoys bipartisan support. House Bill 63 would reduce the Lone Star State’s stiff cannabis possession charge from a class B to class C misdemeanor if the possessor is holding less than an ounce. Currently anything less than 2 ounces constitutes a class B, with penalties up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine; under the bill filed by former prosecutor Joe Moody, D-El Paso, possession of under 1 ounce would be considered a class C, which means no arrest or jail time (but a fine of up to $500).

Under the preliminarily approved provision, if the individual busted for possessing flower – the bill would not impact concentrates – successfully follows a judge’s orders and stays out of trouble for a year, the case will be dismissed. That means no criminal charges will appear on their record and they won’t be docked with a drug charge that can trigger a driver’s license suspension and impact financial aid for education.

As approved by the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee last month, HB 63 reduced the personal-possession penalty even further, to a civil violation (i.e., a ticket), but was amended to gain passage from the full House on Monday. Now it faces a Senate overseen by Patrick, who’d already intimated in March, via a spokesperson, that he’s “strongly opposed to weakening any laws against marijuana [and] remains wary of the various medicinal use proposals that could become a vehicle for expanding access to this drug.”

There are 59 bills related to the decriminalization and medical uses of cannabis – plus a so-far-so-good proposal to legalize industrial hemp – that have been filed in this legislative session, which runs through May 27. Look for more about the state of cannabis reform in Texas in this week’s Chronicle.