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Above, Elle Cross hands out plasterboards with the petition in interested students on the quad at Texas State University on Tuesday, Feb. 1. Daily Record photos by Nick Castillo

San Marcos voters overwhelmingly support marijuana decriminalization proposition

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

San Marcos voters overwhelmingly supported Proposition A, which will end low-level marijuana possession enforcement by the San Marcos Police Department. 

Nearly 82% of San Marcos voters cast their ballot in favor of the proposition — 15,655 for Proposition A and 3,475 voting against the measure. 

“We knew, by connecting with over 11,000 San Martians over the course of six months, that this was a popular issue among our neighbors,” said Elle Cross, Right to Justice Coordinator with Mano Amiga Action. “That is why we advocated that voters be given the opportunity to approve this measure at the ballot box themselves, rather than having it approved by council. We can 
now proclaim that it was truly the community — not elected officials — that made this happen” 

Proposition A made its way onto the ballot after a coalition consisting of Mano Amiga, Ground Game Texas San Marcos Democratic Socialists of America, the Hays County Libertarian Party, the Hays County Democratic Party, and the Texas Cannabis Collective gathered more than 10,000 signatures on a petition.

Interim City Clerk Elizabeth Trevino certified the petition in July, however, of the 10,624 signatures, 4,667 signatures were verified and 5,957 were invalid.

The San Marcos City Council received the certified petition during its Aug. 2 regular meeting, where it voted to add the ordinance included in the petition as a proposition on the ballot for the Nov. 8 election.

The ordinance proposed ends citations and arrests by the San Marcos Police Department for misdemeanor possession of marijuana up to 4 ounces. San Marcos police, however, can cite an individual or make an arrest for Class A or Class B misdemeanor possession of marijuana if it’s a part of an investigation involving a felony-level narcotics case or the investigation of a violent felony.

Additionally, the ordinance ends citations for possession of drug residue or drug paraphernalia, the use of city funds or personnel to conduct THC concentration testing will be prohibitied, and there will be a prohibition against city police using the odor of marijuana or hemp as a probable cause for search or seizure.

The ordinance is only applicable to the San Marcos Police Department. The ordinance does not bind Texas State University police, Hays County Sheriff’s Office or Texas Department of Public Safety to decriminalize up to 4 ounces of marijuana in San Marcos.

“We’re hopeful policy change on marijuana enforcement might be a first step toward fundamentally reassessing how we treat drug possession in Hays County; far too many residents are locked in cages here who instead need and deserve professional assistance to tackle addiction,” said Sam Benavides, Communications Director with Mano Amiga Action. “We need to stop treating health issues as criminal ones — a flawed solution which actually creates more harm while reducing public safety.”

San Marcos Record

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P.O. Box 1109, San Marcos, TX 78666