When Texas Democrats convene in El Paso next month for their 2024 party convention, they'll be just a few miles from a row of retail shops in New Mexico where Texans have helped fuel a multi-million-dollar recreational cannabis industry.
For Democrats who've long advocated for Texas to lower penalties for pot possession – or even legalizing its use in the state – that's probably as close as they'll get to recreational cannabis for the foreseeable future.
Although efforts to lower penalties for possession of cannabis have gained traction in the Texas House since 2015, they've stalled in the Senate. For some, it signals that Texas legalizing recreational weed – something 24 other states and Washington, D.C. have done in recent years – is nothing more than a pipe dream.
"I think it's a hard 'no' from the governor's mansion on retail [recreational sales]. I think it is a hard 'no' in the Senate on retail. I don't know how that vote would come down on the House," said state Rep. Joe Moody. The El Paso Democrat's district borders New Mexico, where sales of recreational cannabis have now been legal for just over two years.
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