On Texas’s Independence Day, Republican David Simpson filed a sweeping bill (HB 2165) that would end marijuana prohibition in Texas. Simpson’s bill aims to delete any mention of marijuana from state law, completely deregulate and decriminalize it and treat it as any other vegetable.
A release from Simpson’s office called the proposal a first in the nation. The statement read:
“I am proposing that this plant [marijuana] be regulated like tomatoes, jalapeños or coffee.
“Current marijuana policies are not based on science or sound evidence, but rather misinformation and fear. All that God created is good, including marijuana. God did not make a mistake when he made marijuana that the government needs to fix.
“Let’s allow the plant to be utilized for good—helping people with seizures, treating warriors with PTSD, producing fiber and other products—or simply for beauty and enjoyment. Government prohibition should be for violent actions that harm your neighbor—not of the possession, cultivation, and responsible use of plants”.
Simpson said that many of his Republican colleagues were in support of repealing prohibition, and also considered the War on Drugs to be an abysmal failure. However Chairman of the Smith County Republican Party, Tim McCormick, said the bill caught him and others off-guard, “I was surprised that Simpson filed this bill because it goes against the Republican Party’s platform. He is a strong Republican and he is very, very conservative on many issues. This one is one that he is in disagreement with many of the people locally”.
“It’s the official party position that we don’t favor legalization of marijuana, however it should be noted that a sizable minority voted in favor of allowing medical marijuana usage,” Steve Munisteri, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, told the Houston Chronicle. Spokesman for the Sheriff’s Association of Texas, AJ Lauderback, echoed him, “We’ll oppose Simpson’s bill and any bill that wishes to legalize marijuana in the State of Texas.”
Despite the criticism within his own party, Simpson is hopeful that his bill would be approved by the Texas Legislature, “God can do all things. I don’t put my trust in my colleagues. I put my trust in God”.
“The conservative approach, the liberty approach, is to recognize force and violence is not a good way to deal with drug abuse. Putting people in prison and teaching them a whole lot about crime, separating them from the family, taking away the breadwinners simply for possessing a plant that God made—that’s wrong. We should use our resources in law enforcement to deal with murder, with rape, with theft, but just possessing a substance that God made is not wrong,” Simpson remarked.
