SAN MARCOS, Texas — Another lawsuit over marijuana policies in Texas has been dismissed.
In January, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued several cities that hoped to decriminalize low-level marijuana offenses.
San Marcos is the latest city to have Paxton's lawsuit dismissed as part of a larger legal effort. A lawsuit against Austin was dismissed, while Elgin recently resolved its lawsuit.
In 2022, voters approved ordinances in the three cities, along with Denton and Killeen, to end arrests and citations for less than four ounces of marijuana. About 82% of voters in San Marcos approved the initiative, which Paxton claimed violated Texas law.
"Paxton has no legal basis for interfering with the will of local voters or municipal governments," Ground Game Texas Executive Director Catina Voellinger said after the lawsuit's dismissal. "Texans are tired of scarce resources being devoted to marijuana criminalization instead of needed public services."
Ground Game Texas, which spearheaded the initiative to decriminalize marijuana in San Marcos, recently said it has gathered enough signatures to place the measure on the November ballot in Dallas.
Sam Benavides works with Mano Amiga, a group that helped collect signatures to get the measure on the ballot in San Marcos.
"Having a marijuana criminalization charge on your record can be seen by potential landlords, by potential employers. For students, it can mean that they lose their financial aid," Benavides said. "It's really gratifying that it's been dismissed, especially having witnessed the hundreds of hours of work and effort that our community put into making this policy possible."
If these decisions to dismiss the lawsuits are upheld by an appellate court, criminal defense lawyer and former judge Charlie Baird expects other Texas cities to pass similar ordinances.
"I think that, generally, most Texans believe that it is not the best use of resources, to try to enforce some type of low-level possession of marijuana case when you could spend those resources better off from serious crimes or more serious drug cases," Baird said. "I think that it will be legal in Texas one of these days, but nobody knows exactly when that's going to occur."
KVUE reached out to the Office of the Texas Attorney General, but we did not hear back.
If passed, Dallas would become the largest city to decriminalize marijuana. Dallas city officials say it would send a message that Texas should reform its marijuana policies.