Dallas to vote on ending arrests, citations for small amounts of marijuana
DALLAS - Marijuana possession is still illegal in Texas, but Dallas could become the largest city in the state to stop arresting people with small amounts of it.
The City of Dallas confirmed that enough signatures have been collected to put the issue on the November ballot.
Dallas police already issue citations instead of arresting people with less than two ounces of marijuana. The ballot question would increase that allowance to four ounces.
Earlier this year, a group of organizations held a rally to further decriminalize marijuana in the City of Dallas.
The group, Ground Game Texas, needed 20,000 signatures from registered Dallas voters to get what they call the Dallas Freedom Act on the November ballot.
This month, the group was notified by the city that it met the requirements to put the item on the ballot.
As a formality, Dallas City Council will have to approve the ballot measure. That will likely happen when the council returns in August.
Then, voters would have the opportunity to vote on the measure in November.
The current allowance of two ounces of marijuana dates back to 2021.
That policy change was analyzed in a report authored, in part, by the Dallas Police Oversight Board.
In 2018, DPD made 456 arrests for low-level pot possession.
That dropped to 145 arrests in 2021 and just 49 arrests in 2022.
Advocates of the new measure point out minorities still make up the majority of arrests.
"While they're not legalizing it, they're decriminalizing it, which is just to say we're going to pass a policy that says we're not going to arrest for a Class B misdemeanor, less than two ounces. Class A is less than four ounces," said Timothy Bray, the director of the Institute for Urban Policy Research at UT Dallas.
The act would also prohibit the city from allocating any budgeted resources for THC concentration tests, which is the only confirmed way to determine whether a substance is legal hemp or illegal marijuana.
Earlier this year, Attorney General Ken Paxton sued five Texas cities, including Denton, for passing similar laws.
Texas sues 5 cities, including Denton, over marijuana policies
The lawsuits were filed by the State of Texas against Denton, Austin, San Marcos, Killeen and Elgin. All 5 cities adopted amnesty and non-prosecution policies about marijuana.
Paxton says the local exceptions violate state law.
A San Marcos judge dismissed the case.
"What the City of San Marcos argued is, 'Hey, our residents voted for this. We don't have a choice. We have to implement this. Therefore, we're immune from lawsuits.' And that's what the judge agreed with," explained Bray.
Bray says as more cities pass these measures, that can create disparities in who is making arrests and who is not.
"I'm more interested in what happens when these criminal laws start to conflict with each other, " he said. "So two people, both similarly situated, I'm stopped by a Dallas police officer and let go, but my buddy is stopped by a state trooper and sent to jail."
FOX 4 reached out to Dallas Police for comment about the potential policy.