Weed ban still official stance of Texas GOP as marijuana popularity grows among residents

According to a recent poll conducted by the University of Houston and Texas Southern University, the majority of Texas residents support the legalization of recreational cannabis.

As expected, most supporters of legalization are Democrats and young people, with 79% of Democrats and 70% of Independents supporting cannabis reform. Republicans followed on demographics, with 50% of baby boomers and the silent generation also supporting legalizing cannabis nationwide. Still, despite its growing popularity, GOP-leaning politicians remain opposed.

Over the past holiday weekend, the Texas Republican Party approved a platform plank against marijuana legalization, among several other newly passed measures.

Cannabis advocates are not happy

“Just because you don’t like cannabis or don’t want your kids, your husband, or whoever uses cannabis doesn’t mean prohibition is the right answer,” said John Baucum, policy director of Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition (RAMP ), recently told Marijuana Moment.

Beto O’Rourke, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate who advocates cannabis reform, condemned the GOP’s stance, which was one of the few cannabis and drug policy measures reviewed at the party’s biennial state convention.

O’Rourke previously said he would legalize marijuana if he were elected governor of Texas and that he expects the Republican majority in the legislature to come on board.

Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images

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“I’ll let you in on a secret: Republicans like getting high just as much as Democrats,” O’Rourke said at an SXSW panel in Austin in March.

However, GOP delegates backed two platforms that signaled there is still hope for the cause, including the state moving marijuana from Schedule I to II and reducing hemp regulations.