Austin likely to vote on measure to end most arrests for marijuana

As greater numbers of Texas voters sour on harsh punishment for marijuana offenses, Austin voters likely will decide in May whether to effectively decriminalize the drug.

The ballot measure, pushed by the group Ground Game Texas, would forbid Austin police officers in most cases from ticketing or arresting people on low-level pot charges such as possessing small amounts of the drug or related paraphernalia, unless the offenses are tied to more severe crimes. The city also would not pay to test substances suspected to be marijuana, a key step in substantiating drug charges.

Both practices have already been informally adopted in Austin, but advocates want to solidify them at the May ballot box.

“The primary effect is that it would make the decriminalization that exists in Austin today actually long term and would put the force of law behind it,” said Chris Harris, policy director at Austin Justice Coalition.

Austin law enforcement has met the idea with varying degrees of hostility and indifference in recent years. After the City Council informally asked the Police Department in 2020 to halt citations and arrests for misdemeanor marijuana charges, then-chief Brian Manley said the council doesn’t have the authority to tell him not to enforce state law. And officers still have latitude to decide whether to make arrests and write citations.

Chief Joseph Chacon has been mum on the current proposal. A Police Department representative did not return a request for comment.

The Austin Police Association, the union that represents Austin officers, is staying out of the ballot fight, but not because it’s happy with the idea.

“We don’t support it just because we feel like you should follow state law,” said Ken Casaday, head of the union. “They’re skirting state law. But the thing is, if this makes people in Austin happy, so be it.”

The city clerk has verified that the campaign collected enough signatures — at least 20,000 — to appear on the May ballot. The City Council still must vote to put the measure, which also would formally ban “noknock” warrants, on the ballot.

But the measure faces one big obstacle: Although marijuana laws in Texas have loosened somewhat in recent years, the drug remains illegal at the state level.

Public support for harsh marijuana laws and prosecutors’ willingness to bring charges for minor offenses has waned in recent years.

The number of new charges for misdemeanor marijuana possession fell by 59 percent from 2016 to 2020, according to figures from the Texas Office of Court Administration, as prosecutors in the state’s major urban areas have increasingly deprioritized marijuana prosecutions.

Most Texas voters support decriminalizing marijuana in some form. Threefifths of Texas voters say at least a small amount of marijuana should be legal, according to a University of Texas/texas Tribune Poll last year.

That support cuts across partisan lines. Nearly three-fourths of Democrats and independents think marijuana should be legal. So do 43 percent of Republicans, a plurality of that group.

It’s against that backdrop that Ground Game Texas, a progressive group focused on issues of “workers, wages and weed,” plans to mount decriminalization campaigns in Killeen and Harker Heights. In San Marcos, another organization is gathering signatures for a similar ballot measure.

In the past, Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican leaders have sought to punish Austin for adopting leftleaning measures such as cutting the city’s police spending or allowing homeless encampments in public.

But Abbott has signaled openness to some forms of marijuana decriminalization. Last May, he signed an expansion of the state’s medical marijuana program to include people with cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder. Also, he said recently that he has little appetite for severe punishment for low-level marijuana offenses.

Disclosure: The University of Houston has been a financial supporter of the Texas Tribune, which is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism.