Dallas is backtracking on a voter-approved charter amendment decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana.
The city last week filed a joint motion with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton鈥檚 office asking a judge to issue a temporary injunction blocking the new ordinance, as first reported by Bloomberg Law. It comes after in April said cities cannot prevent police from enforcing marijuana-related offenses.
Proposition R said police could not arrest or ticket people with up to four ounces of marijuana, nor could they use the smell of weed as probable cause to search a person or their property, unless it was related to a violent or high priority narcotics felony investigation.
Weeks after voters approved the measure, Paxton sued the city.
鈥淐ities cannot pick and choose which State laws they follow," Attorney General Paxton said in a statement released Nov. 21. "The City of Dallas has no authority to override Texas drug laws or prohibit the police from enforcing them. This is a backdoor attempt to violate the Texas Constitution, and any city that tries to constrain police in this fashion will be met swiftly with a lawsuit by my office.鈥�
Neither Paxton's office nor the city have responded to a request for comment.
Voters in Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin and Denton approved similar decriminalization ordinances, which Paxton鈥檚 office also challenged.
If allowed, the new no-enforcement rule would not have eased crowding problems at the Dallas County jail.
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price said established cite and release efforts already ease low-level drug offense law enforcement, which frees police to address more serious crimes.
Proposition R also prohibited city resources to be used for cannabis-related substance testing, except in some circumstances.
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