DALLAS — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the city of Dallas over the charter amendment voters approved that prohibits police from arresting people suspected of having up to four ounces of marijuana, seeking to stop its enforcement.
Proposition R, which was spearheaded by a self-described progressive group called Ground Game Texas, was approved with about 67% of the vote. It makes enforcement of Class A and B misdemeanor marijuana possession the Dallas Police Department’s lowest priority and prohibits the use of city resources for THC testing except for purposes of ensuring public safety or in the investigation of a violent felony.
Paxton's lawsuit names the city of Dallas and city council members and argues the ordinance is void because of state law on marijuana.
“Cities cannot pick and choose which State laws they follow," Paxton said in a release. "The City of Dallas has no authority to override Texas drug laws or prohibit the police from enforcing them. This is a backdoor attempt to violate the Texas Constitution, and any city that tries to constrain police in this fashion will be met swiftly with a lawsuit by my office,”
Paxton previously sued five cities, including Denton, over ordinances to deprioritize misdemeanor marijuana enforcement.
The city of Dallas said it's aware of the lawsuit but declined to comment further.
"The city is aware of the lawsuit filed by the State of Texas regarding Proposition R and will respond to the lawsuit at the appropriate time," Dallas' statement reads.
Paxton’s lawsuit comes the same week the Dallas City Council approved canvassing the results of the Nov. 5 election in which Proposition R was passed.
During that meeting, city council member Cara Mendelsohn moved to add a clause, which the majority of the city council rejected, stating that the city couldn’t enforce Proposition R unless Texas legalized marijuana.
“The core of this is that state law pre-empts our ability to enforce this ordinance and we need to respect state law and follow state law and if not, we’ll be seeing a lawsuit associated with it,” said Mendelsohn at the time.
“We had hundreds of people show up here to advocate for Proposition R for marijuana reform and there’s not a single person in the audience because of the way this was noticed,” Council Member Chad West said. “If there had been notice to the public that we would be inserting language here essentially stating that we’re not going to enforce the will of the voters, we’d have a packed room right now.”
Ultimately, after the election results were canvassed, Dallas Interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said the city was prepared to begin enforcement of the law.
“The Dallas Freedom Act was adopted by a majority of the voters, and the City Council has directed that the city comply with the amendment’s provisions. The Dallas Police Department is prepared to implement these changes while maintaining its commitment to public safety,” Tolbert said.
Texas is among the states that haven't legalized marijuana for broad use, but the state has a medical marijuana program called the Texas Compassionate Use Act passed in 2015. Through the program, DPS operates an online registry of physicians who can prescribe low tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to patients with specific medical conditions.
The 2018 Farm Bill defined “hemp” as “cannabis and derivatives of cannabis” with no more than 0.3% THC on a dry-weight basis and separated hemp from the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act, according to the FDA.
Then, in 2019, Texas legalized the production, manufacture, sale and inspection of industrial hemp crops and products, including those for “consumable hemp products which contain cannabidiol (CBD), as well as other edible parts of the hemp plant,” according to the Texas Department of Agriculture.