There are some interesting drug-related occurrences happening deep in the heart of Texas. One wonders if these occurrences will happen other places in the United States.
In 2016 voters in Harris County, Texas (a county that includes Houston) elected a new district attorney, Democrat Kim Ogg. In 2017 Ogg and her office spearheaded a major change in the way authorities handle drug crimes in the area: they decriminalized marijuana. More specifically, if police find someone with fewer than four ounces of marijuana, the person can attend a drug-education class instead of facing criminal penalties.
Ogg’s policy contradicts the opinions of other lawmakers across the country at different levels of government. Notably, another new person in a justice-related government post seems to hold the opposite opinions. This person is Jeff Sessions, who became the U.S. attorney general in February, 2017.
There has been some debate as to whether Sessions would encourage stronger federal oversight of marijuana that is legal according to states laws. It does appear, however, that the attorney general isn’t a fan of decriminalizing or legalizing the drug. He has warned that widespread availability might make marijuana available in “every corner store” and has compared opiate/opioid dependence to marijuana use in that people “trade one life-wrecking dependency for another that’s only slightly less awful.”
Sessions’s comments come at a time many more than half of all U.S. states have legalized medical marijuana and a handful of states allow adults to use controlled amounts of marijuana for recreational purposes. Worries about legalized marijuana seems to be increasingly in the minority, as voters in many states have agreed to such legalization or are considering such laws.
Now, Harris County, Texas illustrates that individual counties, too, are challenging longstanding federal policies about drugs. As the home of populous Houston, will Harris County and others influence U.S. policy? Will federal figures like the attorney general fight this influence? These questions illustrate that Texas might be a state to watch.
