Poll: Marijuana Law Reform

[_CY_]

Could Oklahoma be next?

=============

Texas House panel approves full legalization of marijuana
May 6, 2015

AUSTIN — In a surprise move that supporters hailed as a historic victory, the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee approved legislation Wednesday that would make it legal to buy and sell marijuana in the state.

Two Republicans joined with the panel's three Democrats in support, giving House Bill 2165 a decisive 5-2 victory.

The proposal, which would make Texas the fifth state in America to OK pot for recreational purposes, has virtually no chance of clearing any other hurdles on the path to becoming law in this year's legislative session.

Still, advocates described the committee vote as a big step toward future success.

"Marijuana policy reform continues to make unprecedented progress this session," Phillip Martin of the liberal group Progress Texas tweeted just after the vote.

The move came just two days after the same panel voted 4-2 in favor of a bill to decriminalize marijuana, marking the first time such a proposal had made it out of a Texas legislative committee.

House Bill 2165, while more of a dramatic change, did even better Wednesday, drawing support from Republicans David Simpson of Longview and Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi. Committee chairman Abel Herrero, D-Robstown, vice chair Joe Moody, D-El Paso and member Terry Canales, D-Edinburg also voted in support.

http://www.chron.com/news/politics/...mittee-approves-full-legalization-6247225.php

 

[CHenry]

^^^thats encouraging.

 

[Coded-Dude]

Texas is more purple these days (after the California exodus), I still think Oklahoma will be the last state to legalize.

Transmitted via Tactical Telecommunications Device

 

[CHenry]

Texas is more purple these days (after the California exodus), I still think Oklahoma will be the last state to legalize.

Transmitted via Tactical Telecommunications Device

But it gives me a new reason to take a train ride to Dallas.

 

[r00s7a]

But it gives me a new reason to take a train ride to Dallas.

Please let it be one way...

 

[amadera]

How about Meth. I mean if people only do it in the privacy of their own home. Why do those meth addicts have to screw up doing meth for the rest of us? Pills? Why does some doctor get to decide if I can take a pill or not. Why can't ALL drugs just be on the shelf at Walmart next to the aspirin?

Sure would lower the crime rate!

 

[RidgeHunter]

Please let it be one way...

 

[CHenry]

Please let it be one way...

ah come on now.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Our politicians do have a penchant for emulating and admiring Texas.

Constantly fretting about an exodus of our youth, business and industry across the red river if we don't do more to out Texas the Texicans.

Will the policy they have played for so long still apply with the newfound liberal embrace of recreational cannabis in Texas?

 

[_CY_]

Cops Battle Heroin by Abandoning Battle on Heroin Users
It’s a disease, not a crime, the Gloucester police chief said

A kit with naloxone, also known by its brand name Narcan, is displayed at the South Jersey AIDS Alliance in Atlantic City, N.J. on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014. An overdose of opiates essentially makes the body forget to breathe. Naloxone works by blocking the brain receptors that opiates latch onto and helping the body "remember" to take in air. A kit with the opiate-reversing drug naloxone, also known as Narcan.

05.05.15

Opiate addicts in Gloucester who come to the police station - even if they’re carrying drugs - won’t be charged with a crime. They’ll get help.

“We’re committed to the idea of attacking the demand rather than attacking the supply,” Police Chief Leonard Campanello told Boston.com.

Following dozens of overdoses in town and a Saturday forum on opiate addiction, Campanello wrote in a Facebook post that any addict who comes to police headquarters will get an “angel” to walk them down the road toward detox recovery.

Even if someone walks in with needles and drugs, they won’t be charged, he said.

Campanello, a former narcotics detective, wrote that opiate addicts are suffering the same disease as those addicted to cigarettes.

“The reasons for the difference in care between a tobacco addict and an opiate addict is stigma and money,” he wrote. “Petty reasons to lose a life.

Four people have fatally overdosed in the town of fewer than 30,000 residents so far this year. More than 1,000 people died of opiate overdoses in Massachusetts last year, more than ever before.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/ma...-arrest-you/9nrZEse0deDpPqt1t1VozI/story.html