Repeal Criminal Possession Laws

Video Links [TikTok] [YouTube]

All religious faiths on this planet, without exception, invoke the concept of "free will" as a core tenet. They may have a different name for it, but it's the idea that we, as human beings, are free to choose for ourselves whether or not to follow the directives and doctrines of whatever faith we choose to practice, if any. This is especially true of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Simply put, God has granted every one of us the ability to choose for ourselves, and what God has granted, no one has the authority to rescind. (1 Timothy 4:3)

For instance, 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. 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.

"An ill wind comes arising across the cities of the plain. There's no swimming in the heavy water, no singing in the acid rain."

It's not that I think that beef or pork are bad for you - all things in moderation, after all - but I have a 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.

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

"Left and rites of passage, black and whites of youth. Who can face the knowledge that the truth is not the truth?"

For instance, it is against the law to grow hemp or cannabis 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.

Addressing the Long-Failed "War on Drugs"

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 have potpourri or mulch.

The Point

"It's so hard to stay together passing through revolving doors. We need someone to talk to and someone to sweep the floors."

Here's my point: we cannot, in good conscience, force other people to think or feel the way that we do about a subject, and we certainly should not be trying to do so through law. Until an actual crime has been committed - one in which someone other than the perpetrator is actually harmed - vice, morality, and other possession laws and rules only serve to empower authoritarians. And make no mistake, both of the Old Parties are becoming more and more authoritarian with each passing political cycle.

Like those of us who keep my grandkids from eating an entire slab of bacon at one sitting, authoritarians think and believe that they are the "responsible adults" in the room who know better than you do how to run your life and the lives of your family, and who (like vegans and Conservative Christians) insist that everybody would be better off if you just did things their way. After all, if we could just get rid of (on the Republican side) welfare, immigration, religious extremists (at least the ones who don't believe in our religion), abortion, transgender bathrooms, (and on the Democratic side) pollution, hydraulic fracking, corporate greed, voter suppression, and guns, life would be PERFECT!

It's long past time for Texas to shed these restrictive rules and laws, to be liberated from the long-failed "War on Drugs", and have just as much of an opportunity to reap the economic rewards of legalized cannabis and hemp farming in Texas as any other state in the U.S.