The court’s decision means Paxton’s lawsuit, which had previously been dismissed by a Travis County judge, will now go to trial. In the meantime, people could get cited or arrested for marijuana possession in Austin. In a statement, the city said it was reviewing the ruling “as we evaluate our next steps.”
Austin Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes said the court decision was a “huge letdown.” “Now, our police will be forced to waste time on minor marijuana cases instead of focusing on violent crimes,” she said in a statement. “Once again, the State is stepping on local decisions that reflect the values Austin residents actually care about.”
Weed in small amounts has effectively been decriminalized in Austin since 2020. That’s when police, responding to pressure from council members, agreed to stop citing people for the low-level offenses. But the journey to decriminalization in Austin really began when Texas legalized hemp in 2019. Hemp and marijuana are both derived from the cannabis plant — although the latter contains a higher concentration of THC, the ingredient that gets people high.
The law forced local authorities to decide whether they would buy testing equipment to determine whether a seized substance was legal (hemp) or illegal (marijuana).
Elected officials in Austin said they did not want to pay for testing. Prosecutors in Travis County had already said they would stop pursuing these cases.
Thursday’s decision came from the 15th Court of Appeals, which lawmakers created in 2023 to oversee appeals involving the state. The three justices on the court are conservatives who were appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, according to reporting from The Texas Tribune.
The same court released an opinion last week reversing San Marcos’ marijuana decriminalization ordinance. Similar ordinances are in effect in Elgin, Denton and Killeen.
Ground Game Texas, the organization that helped get marijuana decriminalization on the ballot in Austin, San Marcos and other places throughout the state, said in a statement it will continue to “craft policies that respond to [the court’s] ruling.” “These decisions don’t change the fact that the people of Austin and San Marcos spoke with one voice,” executive director Catina Voellinger said. “It doesn’t change the fact that for years, the ordinance protected residents from arrest and criminalization over low-level possession. And it definitely doesn’t change our commitment to this fight.”
