cannabisnews.com: Texas Lawmaker Files Bill To Legalize Marijuana
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Texas Lawmaker Files Bill To Legalize Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on March 04, 2015 at 13:30:22 PT
By Dylan Baddour
Source: Houston Chronicle
Houston -- In Texas, a conservative lawmaker filed a bill to completely deregulate marijuana in the Lone Star State Monday, proposing to strike any mention of the psychoactive plant from state law."Everything that God made is good, even marijuana" said state Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, who filed the bill. "The conservative thought is that government doesn't need to fix something that God made good."
The 24-page bill begins: "The following provisions are repealed," then lists dozens of Texas statutes related to marijuana. If the Legislature were to approve the bill, pot in Texas would be regulated like any common crop.In a press release, Simpson said he supported regulating marijuana like the state regulates "tomatoes, jalapeños or coffee."It's a markedly different approach to marijuana law reform than other states have adopted. In the last year, blue states Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Washington, D.C., have legalize pot within a detailed framework of taxation and regulation. But it would not be so with Simpson's bill, which would offer no such restrictions.In its current form, the bill has virtually no chance of winning legislative approval and the governor's signature, according to Gary Hale, a former intelligence chief in the Drug Intelligence Agency's Houston division and a drug policy scholar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston."A blanket decriminalization of marijuana and classification as a vegetable is not going to happen," he said. "Overall legalization will happen but in my opinion it will happen in incremental baby steps."Snipped:Complete Article: http://drugsense.org/url/AZYHBrfYSource: Houston Chronicle (TX)Author: Dylan Baddour Published: March 3, 2015Copyright: 2015 Houston Chronicle Website: http://www.chron.com/Contact: viewpoints chron.comCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on March 09, 2015 at 20:30:36 PT
The tone of Representative David Simmons
and his choice of words and presentation style on this cannabis matter, I have heard, has been greatly influenced by this gracious lady. Thank you, Ann Lee. Outstanding work.Yes, she is Richard Lee's mother.Texas Grandmother Ann Lee Is Leading A Marijuana Legalization Movementhttp://www.bustle.com/articles/65798-texas-grandmother-ann-lee-is-leading-a-marijuana-legalization-movementRepublican Christian grandmother a surprising voice forTexas marijuana reformwww.chron.com/houston/article/Pot-granny-6105411.phpRAMP Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibitionhttp://www.rampgop.org/Heck yeah!
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Comment #3 posted by runruff on March 05, 2015 at 10:17:24 PT
...lawsuit is about one thing
Hey mister can we please have our ball back?
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Comment #2 posted by The GCW on March 05, 2015 at 08:57:55 PT
This is not about the rule of law.
Recreational marijuana lawsuit: Colorado sheriffs and prosecutors challenge Amendment 64Sheriffs and prosecutors from across Colorado and neighboring states filed a lawsuit Thursday in Denver federal district court challenging the constitutionality of Amendment 64 that legalized recreational marijuana use."This suit is about one thing — the rule of law," http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_27649720/recreational-marijuana-lawsuit-colorado-sheriffs-and-prosecutors-challenge
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on March 05, 2015 at 07:24:14 PT
Letter from My Congressman,
Dear Friend:Source: Colorado Department of Revenue 
Though many of my colleagues in Congress are busy trying to shutdown http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/233778-republican-threatens-dc-mayor-with-jail-over-marijuana Washington D.C.'s legal marijuana policy, I'm trying to get the federal government to respect the laws we've enacted in Colorado.A year into the implementation of Amendment 64, the verdict is clear: the new law is working – far better than prohibition ever has and ever could. Violent crime is down http://www.denvergov.org/Portals/720/documents/statistics/2014/UCR_Citywide_Reported%20_Offenses_2014.pdf , teenage marijuana usage has decreased http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/16/teen-marijuana-use-falls-as-more-states-legalize/ , traffic accidents have fallen http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2014/08/11/as-colorado-loosened-its-marijuana-laws-underage-consumption-and-traffic-fatalities-fell/ , and drug cartels are losing business http://www.cnbc.com/id/102409348#. . Meanwhile, sales from Colorado's dispensaries generated $76 million in tax revenue last year https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/revenue/colorado-marijuana-tax-data , and the industry has created thousands of new jobs.And yet, if federal law enforcement officials were so inclined, there is nothing to stop the Department of Justice -- under either this administration or a future one -- from shuttering Colorado's cannabis industry and leaving thousands of legitimate business owners vulnerable. These antiquated federal laws are more than just a burden on local economies; they're used as grounds for political figures to waste taxpayer resources on frivolous lawsuits http://www.ibtimes.com/marijuana-lawsuits-colorado-put-pot-businesses-edge-cases-carry-little-weight-1828358 aimed at undoing the will of Coloradans.That's why I recently introduced H.R. 1013, the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act, in Congress https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1013 . This bill will leave the decision of how to regulate marijuana up to each individual state and move marijuana from the jurisdiction of the Drug Enforcement Agency to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, where it belongs. It's long past time for the federal government to get out of the way of states like Colorado that have found innovative and successful alternatives to the failed prohibition.As always, I'm eager to hear your thoughts on what policies can best create jobs and grow Colorado's economy. Please feel free to email me https://polis.house.gov/forms/writeyourrep/default.aspx any time. You can also call http://polis.house.gov/contact/default.aspx one of my offices or send me a note through Facebook or Twitter.Thanks for your time, and I hope to hear from you soon.Yours Truly, Jared Polis
Representative
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