Beto O’Rourke’s support for legal weed gives proponents hope for a policy change in Texas

By Nicolas Jose Rodriguez

At a crowded rally in downtown Austin in late December, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke received some of the loudest shouts when he promised to legalize marijuana in Texas, James Polland for the Texas Tribune.

“I was warned that this may or may not be popular in Austin, Texas,” O’Rourke told the crowd that had gathered in Republic Square Park. “But when I am governor, we will legalize marijuana.”

Photo by Bo Zaunders / Getty Images

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O’Rourke’s advocacy dates back at least to his time on El Paso City Council in 2009 when he pushed for a resolution calling on Congress to “open an honest, open national debate on ending the marijuana ban” to lead. And in 2017, he introduced a bill that repealed a rule that prevented federal funds from flowing to states that do not enforce a law to revoke or suspend driver’s licenses for drug convictions.

While O’Rourke did not fight for politics during this race, proponents of the time pointed to his victory as a sign of a changing attitude towards marijuana legalization. The hope now is that more attention will be paid to legalization efforts in a state with some of the harshest penalties and highest arrest rates for possession of marijuana.

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“With Beto O’Rourke presumably the Democrats’ candidate, hopefully we can get the other candidates in the race to talk more about this issue, come together and have a conversation about how these policies are having a negative impact on ours State has. “Said Heather Fazio, director of Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and was republished with permission.