What do you think of this article? Do you approve or disapprove of pot legislation? Why? Will conservative Texas ever legalize pot? How does the valley view pot legalization?

Houston decriminalizes pot; let's hope Dallas is paying attention

Houston made the move for all the right reasons: They want to spend all those pot-policing resources on more serious crimes. We hope that kind of practicality catches on throughout Texas.

Texas State Flag on cannabis background. Drug policy. Legalization of marijuana(Getty Images / iStockphoto)

After a wave of marijuana referendums passed throughout the nation in November, the U.S. now has 29 states that allow some form of legal marijuana covering 1 in 5 Americans.

Texas, of course, is not among them. But progress is coming at the local level.

Since 2007, state law has allowedmunicipalities, if they so choose, to issue written citations the equivalent of a traffic ticket for misdemeanor marijuana possession.

Just last year, Dallas tried to embracethis commonsense "cite and release" policy and failed. Let's hope Houston's new efforts fare better.

Opinion

Get smart opinions on the topics North Texans care about.

Effective March 1, the city has decriminalized possession of up to 4 ounces of marijuana. Houston's policy goes beyond simple cite-and-release. Instead, officers will simply confiscate the drugs if the suspect agrees to take a four-hour drug education class. No arrests, no tickets, no appearances in court.

Why make the move? Officials are persuaded that the new policy will improve public safety and save taxpayer dollars.

Over the last decade,Houston District Attorney Kim Ogg explained, "we have spent in excess of $250 million, over a quarter-billion dollars, prosecuting a crime that has produced no tangible evidence of improved public safety." Now, that time and money can be used to address more pressing issues like robbery, sexual assault, murder.

Those are the financial and safety arguments - but the move also has larger societal implications, Ogg said. "We have disqualified, unnecessarily, thousands of people from greater job, housing and educational opportunities by giving them a criminal record for what is, in effect, a minor law violation." More than 107,000 misdemeanor marijuana cases have been handled in the last 10 years. Officials expect the new policy could divert about 12,000 people out of the criminal justice system each year.

As Houston Mayor Sylvester Turnerwrote on Twitter:

You can quibble with some of the details 4 ounces does seem to be a lot of marijuana, for instance but Houston's overall move should be applauded. And Dallas should take note.

Bythe Dallas Police Department's own numbers, around half of all drug arrests in 2015 were for marijuana, a drugtheir own blog acknowledged"is widely used and is seen as a less serious crime."

And Texans seem ready for a change.According to University of Texas/Texas Tribune Pollpublished last month, only 17 percent of Texans say pot should be criminalized under all circumstances, down from 24 percent two years ago. But more than 80 percent support legalizing at least some use of marijuana, including 53 percent who think Texas should go beyond medical marijuana and allow possession for any use.

Given that this is Texas, we know it's unlikely that any large-scale marijuana reform will happen overnight. But officials at the state and local levels need to pay attention to public sentiment and experiments like Houston's. And the next time we talk about DPD's police officers being overworked, its budget being spread too thin, let's think practically about what kind of police work we're prioritizing.