Austin Texas Votes To Decriminalize Cannabis And Ban No-Knock Police Warrants

By a sweeping margin, voters in Austin approved a proposition to decriminalize small amounts of cannabis and ban the use of no-knock warrants by police.

The ballot item, spearheaded by a group known as Ground Game Texas, passed by a whopping margin of roughly 85 percent to 15 percent on Saturday. Activists turned in more than 33,000 signatures to qualify the measure, known as Proposition A, which the Austin City Council approved to be placed on the ballot. 

No-Knock Warrants Banned

No-knock warrants are a controversial police tactic that allows officers to enter people's residences unannounced. The tactic made headlines in March 2020 when police in Louisville, Kentucky burst into the home of Black medical worker Breonna Taylor and shot and killed her during a botched raid. The police shot Taylor eight times, sparking widespread demonstrations over policing and racial injustice in the United States.

Why It Matters

By passing Prop A, voters are codifying current police policy on cannabis.

People in Austin found with 4 oz. or less of cannabis do not face criminal charges. Because of a state law from 2019 legalizing hemp, prosecutors began dropping misdemeanor marijuana cases. After some back and forth in 2020, Austin police agreed to stop citing people for the offense.

Mike Siegel, co-founder of Ground Game Texas told Austin’s KUT 90.5 that he hopes the action in Austin will reverberate throughout the state.

“This lays down an extremely clear marker for the rest of Texas that one, this is something that’s possible. That a city can decide to end marijuana enforcement," Siegel said. "And two, that it’s extremely popular."

In terms of the “no-knock” ban, the head of the local police union told KUT on Sunday afternoon, that he doesn't consider Prop A to be legitimate because state, not local law dictates search warrant protocol.

Photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash