An ordinance that would make marijuana possession the lowest enforcement priority in Lubbock, Texas will receive a vote of the people in May.
Lubbock Compact, the group pushing the Freedom Act Lubbock, announced last month that it had collected more than double the required signatures to put their marijuana measure before the city council. The council had the option of passing it into law, or putting it before voters. Yesterday the council unanimously – 7 to 0 – rejected the measure, officially placing it on the May, 2024 special election ballot. The council had no option to reject it outright.
“The heart of our ordinance is pretty simple. We just don’t think people should go to jail for personal use of marijuana in Lubbock”, ” Adam Hernandez, communications chair for Lubbock Compact, said at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Under the proposed ordinance, the city would end arrests and citations for the misdemeanor possession of marijuana. The measure also decriminalizes marijuana paraphernalia.
Last November five Texas cities, with support ranging between 60% and 82%, all passed similar ordinances to Lubbock’s Freedom Act.
“This was a collective effort that could not have been possible without the more than 40 volunteers and the many other citizens that helped us collect these petition signatures and did the necessary work of notarizing, tallying and verifying,” Hernandez said last month. “What will happen next is up to each and every citizen of Lubbock. We need each and every person, especially the ones who have been sitting out of elections, to get registered and make your voice heard at the ballot box.”
