Texas Democratic Party Platform

DECRIMINALIZATION OF MARIJUANA

Our current penal marijuana laws give power, control, and illicit funding to violent Drug Cartels. The laws destroy young lives with a criminal record and possible prison incarceration. Such harsh laws serve no useful purpose. Such prohibition promotes disrespect for the law and reinforces ethnic and generational divides between the public and law enforcement.

Every year hundreds of thousands of Americans are arrested for marijuana possession violations - far more than all those arrested for violent crimes in America. Societal costs dealing with the war on drugs concerning marijuana exceeds 12 billion dollars annually. Since the war on drugs began, 85% of the arrests for marijuana have been for possession only.

Marijuana is no more dangerous than tobacco or alcohol. Recent polls show over 60% of Americans believe marijuana should be decriminalized. While arrests for marijuana since 1965 have included over 20 million citizens, marijuana is more prevalent than ever before.

There is no evidence that marijuana is a “gateway” drug leading to use of other more lethal drugs. 75% of citizens arrested for marijuana are under 30. Persons of color account for a majority of those arrested for marijuana. Criminal conviction permanently scars a young person for life.

Texas Democrats urges the President, the Attorney General, Congress as well as the Texas Legislature, to support the passage of legislation to decriminalize the possession of marijuana and regulate its use, production, and sale as is done with tobacco and alcohol.

Colorado and Washington have successfully implemented laws to legally possess up to one ounce of marijuana and regulate its use and sale and taxing of marijuana. The Governor in his budget for Colorado projects 134 million dollars in tax revenue in the current fiscal year. We urge the immediate decriminalization of possession and use of medical marijuana. We support the Texas Legislature to study the laws and systems in Colorado and Washington as a first step
in implementing a similar system in Texas.

Personal Security: Ban Reparative Therapy

For decades it has been beyond dispute by health professionals that homosexuality is a normal, natural and positive variation of human sexual orientation. Similarly, it is clear that a person’s gender identity — one’s inner sense of being male or female — is deep-seated and cannot be changed. Yet, in 2014, the Republican Party of Texas continues to encourage violence against the very souls of LGBTQ people through the quackery known as “reparative therapy" which is now illegal in two states. Texas Democrats strongly oppose the use of any public funding for this demonstrably harmful practice. We further call on the Texas Medical Board, the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists, and the Texas Department of State Health Services to fully investigate and to sanction any practitioner who engages in reparative therapy