DENTON, Texas — A North Texas city has repealed an ordinance decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana following pressure from state officials.
Denton City Council members in a 4-3 vote Tuesday approved repealing the ordinance, which was passed by more than 70% of voters in 2022. Since its passage, it was never enforced, city officials said in an information sheet.
“The City Manager has consistently and publicly stated that the City has not and would not enforce Chapter 21, Article V. Furthermore, the City Council, City Manager, and Denton Police Department have never adopted a policy or practice to not fully enforce marijuana laws,” the information sheet read.
The ordinance, and similar ordinances in other cities, including Austin, San Marcos, Killeen and Elgin, prompted lawsuits from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton also filed a lawsuit against the city of Dallas over a charter amendment voters approved in November that prohibits police from arresting people suspected of having up to four ounces of marijuana, seeking to stop its enforcement.
Denton Mayor Gerard Hudspeth, who supported the ordinance’s repeal, said the ordinance has cost the city legal fees.
“I’ve been consistent in that it violates state law and we don’t have the opportunity to enforce it,” Hudspeth said. “I think really, for me, to hear the key components of — we did spend $200,000 in legal fees that we’ll never get back.”
He said the city also faced the potential of another $500,000 discovery process.
The repeal did face some opposition from the community. A resident who spoke during Tuesday’s city council meeting said the repeal goes against the will of the voters and argued for more community input on the issue.
“The democratic choice of the people of Denton has been ignored for over two years, and the city manager and police chief has not been held accountable for ignoring democracy,” the speaker said.
Denton is not the first Texas city to reverse policies decriminalizing low-level marijuana possession.
Our sister station KVUE reports that the Fifteenth Court of Appeals last month “reversed and remanded” Austin’s marijuana policy, which decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana.
