State Rep. Moody files bill to replace criminal penalties for marijuana possession

State Rep. Joe Moody (D-El Paso) has filed a bill in the Texas Legislature that would replace criminal penalties for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana with a civil fine of up to $250.

HB 81 is a similar bill to one filed by Moody (HB 507) last legislative session. It fell short and was voted out of committee at the end of the last session by a bi-partisan vote.

“What we’ve done is we’ve taken the lowest grade of offense of marijuana possession, which is a Class B misdemeanor, that’s up to two ounces,” Moody told ABC-7. “We cut that in half. We dropped out one ounce and said if you are in possession of one ounce that is now a civil fine, a civil sanction. It’s not a criminal offense, it’s not an arrestable offense, it’s not one that would create a criminal record.”

Moody said there are approximately 70,000 arrests annually in Texas for misdemeanor possession “and probably 60,000 of those would be covered by a bill like this.”

“Our goal is to save law enforcement resources, save taxpayer resources, so we’re not locking people up for minor drug offenses and just changing the way we approach marijuana enforcement as a whole,” Moody said. “We should be at the forefront of being smart with taxpayer dollars, about being smart in law enforcement, about being efficient with our resources.”

Cold DeMorris, Executive Director of El Paso Norml, told ABC-7 Texas spends $770 million a year arresting and prosecuting petty possession charges. “We’re going into this legislative session with good momentum coming off the 2015 session and all the work that the activists around Texas have been doing,” DeMorris, “We have bi-partisan support and so we’re hoping the bill makes it to the governor’s desk and Gov. Abbott will give it to us.”

A.J. Louderback, the Jackson County Sheriff, told ABC-7 today’s marijuana is not the marijuana of yesterday because of its high THC content. “I think the Colorado experiment is proving that, that the social problems that go along with that are profound. To kind of sum it up, we really need to legalize another way for Texans to get high? How is that going to serve public interest? How is that good government?”

Grace Barnett, with Texas Standing Stall, an organization that opposes efforts to decriminalize marijuana, is concerned about the bill. “If we remove that social stigma attached with criminal charges, we’re going to see an increase in youth using pot,” Barnett said.

Moody, a former prosecutor, said misdemeanor drug cases were not his priority.

“If you’re in a misdemeanor court, your priorities are domestic violence and drunk driving,” he said. “If we change things, if we start to move the needle on this issue, the nation shifts. So we’re seeing big changes in other states, so eyes ultimately turn to Texas. What is Texas going to do?”

Locally, Moody said passage of the bill would help prevent jail overcrowding.

“The conversation at the County always includes jail overcrowding and the population of the jail,” Moody said, “so this is something that addresses a local taxpayer issue pretty directly.”

The biggest obstacle to passage of HB 81 is the same as last time around, Moody said.

“We make everything a crime in Texas,” Moody said. “We were creating something that was brand new, a civil sanction, non-arrestable, non-criminal record. These are things that Texas law doesn’t really have. Just because it was a new construct, I think that was probably the biggest barrier to passage.”