Texans, cast your votes

    The latest poll, conducted in Feb. 2014, by the University of Texas and Texas Tribune revealed that 49 percent of Texans would legalize marijuana for any purpose, 28 percent would legalize strictly for medical use, and only 23 percent believed that marijuana should remain illegal altogether.  It is clear that public opinion is shifting in favor of legalization.  The Marijuana Policy Project, which played a major role in Colorado's vote to legalize marijuana, has come to Texas and, according to an article in The Austin Chronicle, committed to invest $200,000 per year until the job is done.  

    State policies are usually slow to follow public opinion, especially in Texas, but with numbers like these it's easy to see that it's just a matter of time before marijuana will be legalized in Texas.

    Texas is known for having a very low voter turnout.  Many Texans are both uninformed and uninterested in Texas politics. This is only compounded by the substantial lack of voting by younger generations.  Many of those who are interested in seeing marijuana legalized have not made an effort to vote for lawmakers that are also interested in making that happen.  These factors will certainly contribute to any new laws being a few years behind public opinion.

    So what is the moral of all this?  Change is on the way, but it's on a very slow moving train.  If you want to see marijuana legalized it's up to you to make sure you're registered, find out who is pro-legalization, and cast your votes. 

(Commentary) Texas, Y U No Have Time?!

    In Texas, Y U No Have Time?!, Tonisha discusses the length of the Texas Legislature's regular session. She points out that after 140 days the legislators drop everything they're doing and the session is over whether business has concluded or not.

    In her post, she presents several good points in her argument as to why the sessions should be longer.  In the third paragraph, she discusses the way that legislators roam freely around the room in, what appears to be, a rather chaotic manner while a vote is taking place.  During this process, legislators often go to the desks of those who are absent and cast votes for them as well; this is referred to as "ghost voting." Even after several attempts to resolve this issue, including fingerprint machines conveniently located throughout the building, it remains an ongoing problem.

    I agree that it would be beneficial for the legislature to have longer sessions and possibly even to become full time.  That would also prevent the governor from easily vetoing bills, with no chance for an override, after a session has adjourned. However, as Tonisha pointed out, there is not much interest in changing the session length. I believe this is because Texas is a very conservative state and many Texans still believe strongly in small government.  Ergo, more time for politicians to sit around making laws can't be a good thing.  Because of this, I don't think there will be any changes to the length of sessions any time soon.

Editorial: Should Texas Decriminalize Marijuana

          Are you concerned that decriminalizing marijuana will result in hungry hippies running amok through your town, buying up all the snacks and goodies?  It is possible that the number of citizens with an insatiable hunger for tasty treats may increase if Texas chooses to legalize marijuana for recreational use.  Having said that, legalizing marijuana is still in the best interest of Texas.  The legalization would increase both tax revenue and tourism, create new jobs, and reduce spending on the war on drugs.

    One way the decriminalization of marijuana would stimulate the economy is by increasing tax revenue.  The three major areas our tax dollars go towards funding are education, health care and public transportation (building and repairing roads as well as the public transit system.)  According to one report, Colorado is taxing retail marijuana sales at approximately 29 percent and some state officials have predicted those taxes to total $67 million annually.

    The legalization of marijuana would also stimulate economic growth by increasing tourism.  In an article for the Dallas Morning News, Marc Ramirez stated that one shop in Colorado had seen patrons from all over the country including: Dallas, Austin, Minneapolis, Chicago, Corpus Christi, and Houston.  But, all of the travelers were not from the United States; many patrons had come from other nations, such as Latvia, Denmark, Greece, Burkina Faso, and Brazil.  If Texas decriminalizes marijuana, a similar influx of tourists can certainly be expected.

    Many people believe that marijuana is a gateway drug.  One of the main reasons that marijuana is considered to be a gateway drug is because it is illegal.  Once an individual has crossed the legal barrier and broken the law, jumping to another illegal substance, such as cocaine or heroin, is not that far of a stretch.  Both tobacco and alcohol are poisonous, addictive and dangerous but are not considered gateway drugs because they are not illegal.

    As you can see, there are many reasons that legalizing marijuana would benefit Texas as a whole.  So, what are you waiting for?  Write a letter to your legislators and let them know Texans support the decriminalization of marijuana.