Repeal Criminal Possession Laws

For instance, in many places throughout our great country, you cannot possess a bag of weed. Okay, simple enough, but THAT'S not the problem. The REAL problem is that entire collection of "Cooking for Fun" books that contain your Aunt Martha's special recipe for edible brownies. That's right—it's not the pot of gold you’re holding; it’s the cookbook that’s the problem. Pro tip: If you’re baking brownies and the local cops are on a sugar rush, maybe keep the recipe books out of sight.

Another example is firearms. In some places, you can own a rocket launcher, but you will need a 16-week training course to buy a water gun. That’s right—a simple squirt gun might get you more scrutiny than a cannon. One can only assume that the logic here is that if you’re up to no good, it’s safer to be armed with artillery capable of international diplomacy rather than something that can’t even soak a fly.

Here's a more personal example: I don't eat beef or pork. It's a personal choice, but apparently, that position alone is enough for some folks to demand that I turn in my Texas resident card. It's not that I think that beef or pork are bad for you - all things in moderation, after all - but I have a medical condition that makes me physically sick if I eat them. Just like anything else, it's something that I have become adapted to living with. However, unlike vegans or conservative Christians, I don't force my family - or anyone else - to avoid eating beef or pork due to my belief that they could cause health problems, or due to my personal discomfort. My wife and children all love steak (usually medium rare, and sometimes with a specific brand of steak sauce), and I am pretty certain that the grandkids would eat an entire slab of bacon at one sitting if it were available and the "responsible" adults would allow it.

But that's exactly what criminal possession laws do. They remove the ability for someone who may not follow your dogma to choose for themselves; they take away your personal choices because of someone else's personal discomfort.

For instance, it is against the law to grow hemp or cannabis in Texas for the single simple reason that people could ingest it to alter their mental state. It doesn't matter that the crop itself has multiple "real world" applications to which it historically has been used and potentially could be used (e.g., textiles, paper, lumber, medicines, just to name a few drone-level-view applications); it's only illegal because someone could get high from it.

Personally, I think it is long past time for Texas to be liberated from the long-failed "War on Drugs". Growing hemp (and cannabis) is a way of growing our state. It's a way of making people free, growing jobs, and increasing our tax base without increasing tax rates. Growing, processing, and distributing both cannabis and hemp should not be regulated any more than any other agricultural crops. Funding and resources should be available to companies wanting to research and develop these crops.

Legalization of cannabis at the recreational level is preferred, but at the medicinal level is necessary, if for no other reason than we are wasting too much of the taxpayer's money on prosecuting and housing non-violent drug offenders. Nearly half of the drug-related arrests across the U.S. stem from cannabis and, of that portion, almost 90% were due to simple possession - not USE of it, just having it. To me, that is just as ridiculous as it being illegal to possess potpourri or mulch.