250,000 Texans Voted to Decriminalize Marijuana, So Why Are Politicians Trying To Override Them? (Op-Ed)

*“Instead of respecting the will of the voters, politicians in this state
are doing everything they can to overturn these democratically elected
policies.”*

*By Catina Voellinger, Ground Game Texas*

As the executive director of Ground Game Texas, I lead a team organizing
working-class Texans to pass movement-driven local policies at the ballot
box. In a state where our elected officials are openly hostile to justice,
and voter suppression is rampant, we take the fight directly to the people.
And the people are showing up.

Through our local campaigns, we’ve gathered hundreds of thousands of
petition signatures and earned a quarter of a million votes to
decriminalize marijuana across Texas—from Austin to Killeen, Lockhart to
Dallas. In a state with low voter turnout, marijuana decriminalization has
earned a supermajority of the vote in every city, and over-performed
compared to the rest of the ballot. But instead of respecting the will of
the voters, politicians in this state are doing everything they can to
overturn these democratically elected policies.

We are fighting locally, fighting statewide, and fighting crony courts.
Last year in Lockhart, the city attorney tried to split our single policy
into 13 separate ballot items to bury it in bureaucracy. We stopped them. A
state appeals court just upheld a lawsuit designed to stop our cities from
implementing our marijuana decriminalization. And at the legislature, five
separate bills were introduced this session to gut local control and block
citizens from changing the law through ballot initiatives.

This is about more than plants with healing properties. It’s about power.
It’s about democracy. And it’s all connected.

The war on drugs isn’t a failed policy—it’s a successful tool of
oppression. A tool used to criminalize poverty. A tool used to lock Black
and Brown Texans into cycles of incarceration. A tool used to destabilize
families, punish veterans and disabled people and make survival a crime.

And when we rise up to change those laws, the people in power rewrite the
rules to keep control. That’s not new. It’s a familiar playbook.

From Jim Crow poll taxes to modern-day gerrymandering and felony
disenfranchisement, this country has always created new systems to block
the people most impacted by oppression from changing it. What’s happening
in Texas right now is just the latest chapter.

Let’s be clear: The issue isn’t that Texans don’t care. The issue is that
the system was designed to keep most Texans out.

Only about 25 percent of eligible Texans voted for our current leadership
in the last midterm. That means 75 percent didn’t choose the people
currently in power. Half of Texans don’t vote—not because they’re
apathetic, but because the system was built to exhaust them, confuse them
and convince them their voices don’t matter.

That’s by design. Because if we all voted, everything would change.

This is a “let them eat cake” moment. While elites argue over bathroom
bills and book lists, the rest of us are fighting to stay housed, stay fed
and stay free. And just like the moments that sparked revolutions before,
we need to wake up to the truth: We deserve more.

We deserve a Texas where dignity isn’t up for debate. Where policy is
rooted in care, not punishment. Where liberation isn’t treated like a
fringe demand, but the foundation of a better future.

Yes, we must acknowledge our full history—how this land was taken, how
systems were built to oppress and how violence shaped the present. But we
also carry a different truth: that people are capable of transformation.
That Texans, for all our contradictions, are kind, resourceful and brave.

We are not defined by the people who currently represent us.

We are defined by what we choose to build next.

Texas often gets painted with one brush—written off as hopeless, backward
and too far gone. But the truth is, Texans have been organizing through
storms, budget cuts, book bans and police intimidation for decades. We’ve
done it without national attention, without big checks and without
permission. Not just for ourselves, but for the future we believe is still
possible.

So if you’re reading this from outside Texas—maybe feeling like all of this
is new or extreme—know this: These tactics were tested here first. The
blueprint for suppressing votes, criminalizing poverty and undermining
democracy was drafted in states like Texas and exported nationwide.

But so was the resistance.

We need each other. We need to stop normalizing fascist behavior just
because it’s wrapped in procedure or policy. We need to speak up when
something is wrong. We need to reject the lie that this level of cruelty
and control is just “how it is.”

It’s not.

And the people closest to the pain are already leading the way toward
something better.

So don’t look away. Don’t write us off. And don’t wait for permission to
act.

If you believe in democracy, in dignity and in the idea that power should
come from the people—then join us. Follow our work. Share our stories.
Support the organizers on the ground who are building a future rooted in
justice, not fear.

Because this movement isn’t just about Texas. It’s about all of us.

We need you to fight alongside us—because none of us are truly free until
all of us are.

*Catina Voellinger is the executive director of Ground Game Texas, a
grassroots advocacy organization supporting progressive causes.*

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The post 250,000 Texans Voted to Decriminalize Marijuana, So Why Are
Politicians Trying To Override Them? (Op-Ed) appeared first on Marijuana
Moment.