Last week, Denton City Council voted 4-3 to repeal an ordinance to decriminalize marijuana. The measure, originally passed in November 2022, was designed to end arrests and citations for misdemeanor amounts of marijuana.

The ordinance, however, was never enforced. Still, in 2024, the City of Denton and four other cities were sued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The lawsuit claimed the city ordinances violated state law.

The City of Denton spent around $200,000 defending the ordinance. However, City Council Member Jill Jester said her decision to vote to repeal the ordinance was largely based on an appeals court decision.

In April 2025, the state’s 15th Court of Appeals overturned San Marcos’ marijuana decriminalization ordinance. The court determined it was unenforceable.

“The decision has been made. It’s a state issue. Not a local issue,” Jester said moments before casting her vote to repeal the ordinance.

Voters, however, insist that the majority are not being properly represented by their elected officials.

“We were not heard,” Nick Stevens said. Stevens is part of Decriminalize Denton, a movement to protect cannabis users. “Proposition B received more votes than all of the council members up there on that vote put together. And so for something to be that popular and then elected officials to then just overturn the will of the people is the opposite of hearing the residents.”

Stevens and several other voters allege council members had their minds made up about the repeal without considering the voice of the community.

“We found out on a Friday evening at 6 p.m. (through a) staff report,” Stevens said. “We had until Tuesday morning really just to organize, to get people to show up. Not only that, the actual vote to repeal was hidden within the agenda. It was the very last item on the agenda for Tuesday.”

“You need to listen to your constituents. That’s who you’re there to represent,” Hayden Meek said. Meek is a small business owner in Denton. He owns Delta 8 Denton, a cannabis shop. “I don’t think you had 73% of your constituents coming up to you saying, please repeal this now that you’re being threatened by some big cat in Austin. We’re Denton. We’re different. We’re powerful.”

Meek said that while the repeal will not affect his business, he is concerned about his customers who buy hemp.

“Marijuana and hemp smell very similar,” Meek said. “If they have a federally legal substance in their car and they get pulled over… then all of a sudden they could be getting pulled out of their car and arrested for something that’s actually federally legal.”

During the city council meeting, Jester argued that Denton Police use discretion when pressing charges for minor cases involving pot.”

“Earlier, there was an argument saying that because police can have discretion, and indeed they can as far as enforcing certain laws. And that’s something as a council we can direct our police to do, and we have been,” Jester said. “Even though the ordinance has not been technically enforced, we do have certain policies regarding our priorities.”

Still, data published on Denton PD’s website shows numerous marijuana-related charges dated from November 2022 to October 2024.

When asked for data to present day, a spokesperson for Denton PD told NBC 5 to submit an open records request.

Voters fear the repeal will only increase the number of arrests.

“I would love to see the representatives that we put in office, whether that’s at the local level, the state level or the federal level to begin representing us in the way that we’re asking you to represent us,” Meek said. “Listen to us.”