I marvel at the fear some people have about legalizing marijuana. It's legal in half the country right now, and those states didn't suddenly fall into anarchy, yet, here in Texas, about half of the court dockets are filled with marijuana / THC cases.

It's pointless and stupid, and it's probably one of the single, largest waste of taxpayer's money and resources. I could share story-after-story of the waste and futility of it all, but THAT would be a waste of MY time.

EDIT: I've never been a user of the stuff, and I don't care for the smell, either, but I've recently tried a couple of gummies while traveling through other states.....and, you know what? It really wasn't that big of a deal. It actually made me feel relaxed more than anything else. In Texas, those gummies would've been a felony with prison time at stake.

What good would come out of making recreational use legal in Texas? I understand and support the benefit of medical use under the supervision of a physician.

Here in Texas, about half of the court dockets are filled with marijuana / THC cases.

What good?

Well, for starters, the end of pointless arrests, prosecution, and incarceration of non-violent offenders who have done nothing worse to society than someone who drinks alcohol.

Do you have any idea how much $$$ is spent to keep it illegal, between the cops, court clerks, judges, prosecutors, jail staff, etc.? I don't know the specific number, but I can assure you that we could eliminate about half of the criminal courts. I my county, I recently looked up the dockets for the criminal courts, and about 40% of the cases were marijuana / THC cases. Yet the sheriff is constantly asking for more money because the jail is overcrowded, and the DA's office is constantly asking for more money to handle all of the cases.

What good?

Well, for starters, the end of pointless arrests, prosecution, and incarceration of non-violent offenders who have done nothing worse to society than someone who drinks alcohol.

Do you have any idea how much $$$ is spent to keep it illegal, between the cops, court clerks, judges, prosecutors, jail staff, etc.? I don't know the specific number, but I can assure you that we could eliminate about half of the criminal courts. I my county, I recently looked up the dockets for the criminal courts, and about 40% of the cases were marijuana / THC cases. Yet the sheriff is constantly asking for more money because the jail is overcrowded, and the DA's office is constantly asking for more money to handle all of the cases.

Okay, so there's one story I will share. I know a young man, 19 years old, who acquired a couple of THC vapes. He got pulled over for a minor traffic violation, and, as standard procedure goes, the officer asked him if he had anything illegal. The young man admitted to the THC vapes, but tried to minimize the impact by saying he was just bringing them to a friend.

BOOM!

First degree felony charge of Manufacture / Delivery of a Controlled Substance. 5-99 years or life in prison. Same as a Murder, Aggravated Sexual Assault, etc.

And this is our taxes at work, folks.

So he knowingly broke the law, lied about it to the cop 'it ain't mine', and is going to get punished? Good on the law. Maybe instead of 'it's just weed' he should have thought 'holy hell, it's weed' and left it the hell alone. He's either that stupid and getting what he deserves or a POS. Either way he's not getting 99 years, but keep using that to boost your argument.

In the counties where I worked over the years, I'm betting DWI and Meth arrests took up most of the docket, along with family violence cases...I only testified in a handful of Marijuana cases in my entire career. Now back forty years ago, yes.

Much of this has to do with money.

Dallas police make roughly 2000 marijuana arrests a year, most of those have other charges. They send the weed to get tested, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then the DA never prosecutes and drops the weed charge.

So what is the difference between now and 40 years ago? People are not smoking less. Cops don’t care to mess with it as much? That is all the more reason to legalize it.

If it is about money it should certainly be legalized. It’s gonna happen, not sure why so many want to slow down the inevitable. I don’t know why people are against legalizing it, seems like people think it is morally wrong and want to impose their values on others.

It's somewhat difficult to catch a criminal because they killed someone, burglarized a home, robbed a store ect ect. It's easy to catch them with their weed because it stinks. Get in their car because of the weed and the other much more serious cases get made from the property or evidence that's located. That's one of a myriad of reasons not to legalize it. As for the topic of this thread that's about Dallas, look at the statewide election map. The place is a lost cause so I can't think of a better place to attract even more human hair balls from the rest of the state. I'm glad they passed it.