Making Possession of Marijuana a Class C Offense in Texas
From a comment left on the post of the Texas Possession of Marijuana statute: “What about HB 254, which amended this statute?”
House Bill 254 from the 79th legislative session, originally introduced by Harold Dutton, would have reclassified possession of up to one ounce of marijuana as a Class C misdemeanor. Currently, any usable amount up to two ounces is a Class B, and HB 254 would have left possession of one to two ounces at that level (same level as first time DWI). This would have allowed police officers to confiscate the marijuana, and write someone a ticket for it, rather than arresting them and further clogging the jails.
Unfortunately, despite sailing through the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence committee unanimously, it was never scheduled for a floor vote, and thus died almost unnoticed.
Back to the question asked, actually the answer is that the Texas marijuana statute was not amended, and therefore, remains in its current form. But I will be happy to amend the statute in the blog, as soon as the Texas legislature does…
(See Grits for Breakfast’s usual outstanding coverage on this topic here)
