The Austin City Council on Tuesday approved a proposal to put an activist-led initiative to decriminalize marijuana on the local ballot in May. Ground Game Texas successfully collected enough signatures to place the reform on the Austin ballot. The council had a chance to adopt it as an ordinance on its own without putting the issue to voters—which the advocates said they would have preferred—but lawmakers chose instead to simply authorize the initiative for the ballot. The proposal passed in a 7-3 vote. It was just this month that city officials certified petitions for the ballot initiative. Activists turned in more than 33,000 signatures for the measure—about 10,000 more than required to qualify for the May 7 election. On the same day of the local certification, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said that he doesn’t believe people should be incarcerated over low-level marijuana possession. While Austin, as well as other Texas cities like Dallas, have already independently enacted law enforcement policy changes aimed at reducing arrests for cannabis-related offenses by issuing citations and summons, the ordinance adopted by the council would go a step further. The measure seeks to end arrests and citations for misdemeanor marijuana possession within Texas’s capital city.

Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 01/18/2022 11:55:00

Open article: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/austin-lawmakers-approve-marijuana-decriminalization-initiative-for-may-ballot/

The decriminalization and legalization of marijuana in Kentucky will improve the state’s criminal justice system, Kentucky Rep. Nima Kulkarni said. The lawmaker gathered with other proponents of the initiative Monday to push for action on the issue during this year’s legislative session, WLKY reported. Kulkarni, who noted that Kentucky is currently among the 14 states that have neither decriminalized nor approved the adult use of marijuana, introduced House Bills 224 and 225 on Jan. 5. The former would decriminalize marijuana and expunge certain previous convictions related to the substance, while the latter would allow anyone aged 21 or older to possess, use, buy or sell up to an ounce of cannabis without criminal penalties. “You can’t have one without the other, and I have been very clear that I am not going to sign onto legalization legislation if we don’t include decriminalization,” Kulkarni explained. The lawmaker believes that legalizing marijuana would “drastically” improve her state’s “overwhelmed” criminal justice system, according to the WLKY report. “We are wasting our time enforcing a law that should have never existed in the first place,” Sheri Ray, a former corrections officer turned advocate for criminal justice and drug policy reforms was quoted as saying.

420 Intel – Marijuana Industry News, 01/18/2022 19:00:00

Open article: https://420intel.com/articles/2022/01/19/kentucky-marijuana-legalization-2022-kulkarni-pushes-decriminalize-cannabis