Dallas County Will Experiment with Not Arresting People Caught with Marijuana

"stern admonition". Puh-lease! It's a harmless plant. Big Pharma and it's bedfellows, (government, prison industrial complex, law enforcement, etc.) have tricked most people into believing otherwise. Study the true history of how it became illegal. GREED! PERIOD!

It is difficult to believe. The price will fall on this contraband and my grandchildren will not enjoy a financial success as my life was.

listen  the citizen have to stand up WE ARE THE PEOPLE    we want you to join us listen to us please  law enforcement  has the disease  of prohibition  and the prohibitionist need to be sent to correction they are enforcing bad law     We  you and Us  have to change the law  and demand this form anyone elected  do not continue to send democ[rats  and repubi[can't to office  its time to invoke the truth before the collapse  comes  , they have 100, trillion of debt   8 trillion  every year under present president   lets us organize  write me  massvocals@comcast.net  

Listen citizen  ,  the citizen have to stand up we are in charge , WE ARE THE PEOPLE    we want you to join us listen to us please we are MassVocals   , The law enforcement  has the disease  of prohibition rewarded by employment   and the prohibitionist mind set  continues  Some may need to be sent to correction they are enforcing bad law and save no one  ,     We ,  you and Us  have to change the law  and demand this form anyone who you vote for  Those elected are not working for the republic  ,  do not continue to send democ[rats  and repubi[can't to office !!!!  its time to invoke the truth before the collapse  comes  , they have 100, trillion dollars  of debt   8 trillion  every year under this current  President , please   lets us organize  write me      massvocals@comcast.net

David Brown is a fucking asshole. As are all cops. You worthless pieces of shit, I hope you get shot while on duty!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2782906/The-terrible-truth-cannabis-British-expert-s-devastating-20-year-study-finally-demolishes-claims-smoking-pot-harmless.html

Bong Boys will enjoy the link above. Cheers! 

JUST LEGALIZE IT !!

You can still get arrested for having weed in Dallas?  We are still a backwoods outpost, no matter how many museums and dumb bridges we create. 

Doesn't that sh+thole that is Dallas proper have so many other things to worry about? 

@noblefurrtexas I'm wondering if you read the article. The state legislature *did* authorize local agencies to implement the program this article talks about. In 2007.

Furthermore, cops selectively enforce laws all the time. Ever got a warning from a cop when you were speeding or had a tail light out? That's an example. 

There are also many cases where police come up to a situation where people are arguing or fighting and mediate the dispute to a peaceful resolution and don't arrest anybody. The cops could simply arrest them for disturbing the peace or something else related. 

So you're just simply wrong, on both counts.

@massvocals Stop spamming.

@liegemaximo74

Wow dude, you should really tell us how you feel!

Expect a knock at the door pretty soon......."hi, I'm here representing karma". 

@Catbird  "The Daily Mail" HAHAHAHAHAHA!

@Catbird Apart from the fact that this article is published in one of Britain's most discredited tabloid rags (The Daily Mail), this study is an outlier among all the studies that exist of marijuana research. While it is certainly worth considering and dissecting, one contrary study does not establish those claims with credibility.

Except that it has worked in Travis County and elsewhere.

@kergo1spaceship  You can get arrested for having weed anywhere in the country, depending on how much you have.

@RTGolden1

For the record, a CCL in Texas is a Child Care License. The Tx Concealed Handgun License is officially a CHL. That's kinda like the meaning of "nonplussed" which the vast majority of folks also get wrong.

That said, from what I remember, if a CHL holder is caught in a crime involving alcohol, drugs (and weed is a drug in this case), or carrying a weapon where it's prohibited, it's a stiffer punishment.

And THAT said, yes, the CHL should work, but probably won't.

@Montemalone  Careful what you ask for, let Altria in on the market and the  next thing you know prices will be sky high (no pun intended).  They need to legalize small time growers too (otherwise there will just be an underground market for untaxed weed a la moonshine.)

@Darren @noblefurrtexas He didn't read it because his mind was made up when he read the title like all GOP. Daddy Followers!!!

@Darren the @noblefurrtexas don't have time to read. he's too busy shoving police manuals up his anus.

@priruss @massvocals what are you thinking  because I asked to organize  and give my address  you think that is spamming well , ok ,,, NO  !!  So ... please   you are saying what ? What  are you doing pointing this out  ? Not to organize ?  Would rather continue to see police kill citizen at a rate that would stagger a drunk  ? in news papers and no one is keeping track  , \Respectfully join the rank and file please your part of the problem 

Massvocals 

@ColonelAngus @kergo1spaceship

?............I'm puzzled by that comment; isn't that a given?   I just thought we had progressed where you'd just get a ticket.

@bvckvs  Wow, that could be described as an incredible leap of logic, except that this would imply that logic was somehow involved. 

@becoolerifyoudid @Montemalone  Amen to that. This tippy-toe and barely relaxing the marijuana laws is far from good enough. It needs to be and HAS TO BE wide spread and complete legalization.It's not going to be good enough until an adult can legally grow at minimum, 6 plants just as it is in Colorado. Even Washington state didn't go far enough because under their halfass legalization model, the only home growers legally allowed to grow are the one's with written doctor's approval. This is why WA state will struggle with a black market that is greater than that of Colorado. Even with a medical legalization in Texas, that still doesn't stop the arrests of the recreational users and still again, the black market will continue. Also, the non-legal states are trying to push this progressive-appearing agenda of legalizing CBD oil only in places like Alabama which again, does not stop one-iota of arrests for those that smoke the THC buds.

What's going to end up happening and it already is, is Colorado herb is making it's way into Texas where it is being dealt. Full legalization will stop this and is the only way, if not, come 2016 when 6 states are projected to pass recreational legalization, these newly legalized states will end up being suppliers to the rest of the non-legal states that is why at this point in time, unless one can legally grow their own supply, the cops will continue arrests as always. Backward southern legislators will be forced to legalize recreational legalization within another 3-4 yrs because where will they get the tax money to house all those that will be getting busted for bringing herb from 1 state over into another ? This is what will ultimately force the hands of these old fashioned legislators because the masses aren't going to tolerate having new taxes raised just to make room in the jails and prisons for a crime that isn't even a crime in the next state above. This is how I see the backs of marijuana prohibitionists being broken. 

@bvckvs @fred.garvin.mp.713 If you don't go to court you get a Failure to Appear charge and a no bond warrant, then you really will go to jail. 

Shouldn't be arresting folks for weed anyway it is waste of $ throught the whole system. If we are going to keep alcohol and tobacco legal there should be no problem with weed being legal. Unless of course we are a country of hypocrites. 

@kergo1spaceship @ColonelAngus Kergs, I was just pointing out that you will still go to prison should you get caught with a truckload, even in Colorado.  We agree on small amounts for personal use, like a QP or less.  ;-)

@freetheplant @becoolerifyoudid @Montemalone

Interesting scenario, well considered. However, I question if our, our mean "their" backward legislators will act within 3-4 years, given the increasing desperation and willingness to contribute on the part of the for-profit prisons and others with explicit interest in locking people up. That is, I think it'll take several election cycles in the more conservative areas.

But I hope you're right, and you do indeed paint a plausible picture.

@jcgawne @bvckvs @fred.garvin.mp.713  "If you don't go to court you get a Failure to Appear charge and a no bond warrant, then you really will go to jail."

JC, you beat me to it.  Once you get the citation it can go one of two ways.  Wear your best clothes to court and plead for mercy, which will most often end well if all you got busted for was possession of a couple of joints or even a quarter-ounce, depending on your rap sheet.  Or you can blow it off until your next instance of police contact, at which point you will be arrested, spend days or weeks in jail, and then go face a judge who is none too pleased about your blowing off your mandated appearance before him.

Bvckvs, please counsel these kids to face the music.  Running away will only make it worse, often exponentially.

@wcvemail 

I see the election  in Nov. 2020, being the absolute latest that all states will have recreational legalization and this is if the feds sit back and let this playout as a state rights issue because the feds have 2 ways they can go, they can de-classify it from being a scheduled drug which will speed things up, or they can let the snowball turn into an ugly avalanche that will end up creating all sorts of judicial nightmares where 20 or so legalized states end up supplying the demand in the other 30 non-legal states because there is no way the feds can turn the clock back to pre-1996 before California kicked off the marijuana freedom agenda with their MMJ bill in 1996.

 There was a recent news story of a small town Nebraska sheriff was complaining that he had already spent his yearly budget on marijuana arrests from herb coming out of Colorado. If this tip-toeing around legalization continues and the feds don't enact a blanket legalization, there will be mega-issues after 2016 when the nation ends up with a handful of Colorado-like states. The good that will come out of this will be , the present economy and state budgets are already in dire straits, the money won't be there to prosecute the masses of herb users and black market dealers that will exist.After 2016, the pressure for legalization in all states will be greater than it ever has before. I expect that after this people will resort to doing things like mass public smokeouts in non-legal states to even further force their hand and it will probably be in the southern states that this anger will spill over.

The prohibitionists have lost, there is no way they can continue this much longer. I live in Colorado and I want to see farmers start mass cultivating industrial hemp to bring back manufacturing jobs. This particular plant species could amazingly bring an uplifting to the economy. Not only that, hemp could replace gasoline as a fuel source with bio-diesel. The only reason this plant species was outlawed in 1937 was that it threatened the profits of the established corporations at the time because it could not be patented.

And we already have the legislation to fix the bad law. The TX leg. allows individual jurisdictions to treat weed possession as a Class B misdemeanor. That would be good law fixing bad law.

Your argument is circular. You claim that people will flout this newer, less restricted law, but people are already flouting the more draconian laws. With either charge, the accused still has to make (several) court appearances, with jail as a consequence for failure to appear.

I live in Austin, and have already seen a difference this has made. In contrast, Williamson County has not made the change. My brother was arrested for possession of pot paraphernalia 5 years ago--no actual drug on him, no drugs in his system, but a pipe in his car--hasn't used drugs since then; yet he was arrested, went to jail, and now because of this conviction can't get a job at Academy, Wal-Mart, Sports Authority, etc. etc. And I might add he was lucky. The judge was lenient and did not sentence him to add'l jail time, which is the norm.

However, it's almost like he has a felony conviction. I don't know how much more oppressive that could be. Meanwhile, if he had been caught with actual pot on the other side of the county line, he would have only received a ticket, and gone on his way, with none of the negative consequences.

@ColonelAngus @jcgawne @bvckvs @fred.garvin.mp.713  Failure to Appear on a misdemeanor is little more than a parking ticket.

@freetheplant @wcvemail 

'Not only that, hemp could replace gasoline as a fuel source with bio-diesel.'

Wow man, far out. You might want to apply for a position on the Obama economic advisory team.

Hemp is legal in Canada and Europe. I guess that's why those folks have all converted over to hemp fueled cars.

@bvckvs You must be a " Texas law enforcement officer" your comments show evidence of a very low IQ. Any human that thinks it is moral and ethical to steal a persons money and property then lock them in a cage when they are not accused of harming another person is mentally ill!  Sincerely, M. Bruce Quarles

@bvckvs Get off your high horse buddy.

Two states have already legalized marijuana outright, more have a medical marijuana program, and many have some form of "decriminalization".

If the states refuse to prosecute marijuana users, that leaves it up to the federal government to do it. The federal government can't force states to do it. 

While federal law enforcement can try to fill in the voids that the states are creating, there are simply not enough federal law enforcement officers or court capacity to do it. While the feds do go after some pot shops, they've stayed away from the users. 

The FBI and DEA just aren't staffed to go on beats around town looking for kids with joints like local cops are.