Houston voters could decide this fall whether to amend the city charter to deprioritize enforcement of low-level marijuana offenses and ban police from carrying out no-knock warrants after activists submitted nearly 40,000 petition signatures to City Hall.
The referendum would thrust Houston into the center of Texas’ ongoing fight over marijuana enforcement and police tactics. Similar voter-approved marijuana measures in Dallas, Austin and other Texas cities have drawn lawsuits from Attorney General Ken Paxton, who argues municipalities cannot limit enforcement of state drug laws.
The warrant provision, meanwhile, would revisit the 2019 Harding Street raid, when Houston police executed a no-knock warrant based on fabricated evidence and triggered a shootout that wounded several officers, killed two homeowners and spurred years of court proceedings. Afterward, HPD restricted the tactic but stopped short of banning it outright.
Houston City Council is expected to vote Wednesday on whether to place the measures on the November ballot. Mayor John Whitmire’s office said in a statement that the signature validation process is still ongoing and the city secretary’s office is “on track and confident that the required verification process will be completed soon.”
Ground Game Texas submitted roughly 40,000 signatures, the mayor’s office said, but the number of validated signatures won’t be known until the verification process is completed. In Houston, 20,000 signatures are required to force a vote on amending the city charter.
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The marijuana provision would make enforcement of low-level marijuana offenses a lower priority for HPD, which [Ground Game Texas director Catina] Voellinger argued would let officers focus on violent crimes and save the city money.
Although the initiative would change HPD policy, Harris County launched a diversion program in 2017 that allows most offenders with less than 4 ounces of marijuana to avoid a criminal charge by taking a drug education class.
I support Ground Game Texas’ efforts and agree with their policy provisions, but I am hesitant to go all in on something that will later be knocked down in court. Maybe they’ve adjusted to past experiences, maybe we won’t elect an evil AG this time, I dunno. I’ll wait and see when the proposals come to Council. I want to support these and will almost certainly vote for them. I’m just dreading a rug pull later on.