New Law Means Fewer Pot Busts In Texas – Except Here In El Paso
New laws are causing Texas police to make fewer arrests for marijuana possession. In El Paso however, it's business as usual.
HB1325 redefined marijuana. According to the El Paso Herald Post:
The law legalized hemp and hemp-like products, like CBD oil, and it also changed the state’s definition of marijuana. Before, the drug was defined as the cannabis plant and products derived from it, and crime labs would simply check for the presence of cannabinoids to label something as marijuana. Now, the definition only pertains to cannabis that contains more than 0.3% of tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that produces a high. Anything less is hemp. - EPHP
Currently, no one can really "test" marijuana to determine whether it's pot, or hemp. So, across the state, authorities are dropping cases and becoming less likely to arrest and/or prosecute any new ones. Except here in El Chuco...
El Paso DA Jaime Esparza continues to pursue all cases saying there is "usually", (my emphasis on the word usually), enough other evidence to make an arrest stick. He added: “But when we talk about marijuana … we weren’t even using lab reports [before].” (EPHP) We weren't but, everyone else was? WTF?
What do you think? Should El Paso start backing off these small-time busts? Or, at the very least, start testing in all cases to determine the validity of the evidence?