3 March 16-22, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents STOMPING ON GRASS Denton voters have deja vu over the city’s lack of action following the successful vote to decriminalize marijuana. BY SIMONE CARTER N ick Stevens stood before the Denton City Council looking equally frustrated and determined. The activ- ist had helped to lead the grassroots charge to decriminalize mari- juana in the North Texas college town. Now he was there to defend Proposition B, which more than 71% of the city’s voters had sup- ported in a high-turnout November vote. Stevens and other activists with the group Decriminalize Denton had fought hard to pass one of the state’s first ordi- nances to decriminalize low-level marijuana offenses, but they received bad news the day after the election. Denton officials an- nounced in a Nov. 9 memo that the city “does not have the authority to implement” some of Prop B’s provisions. Facing council members during the Feb. 21 meeting, Stevens emphasized that even if they didn’t personally like the ordinance, they should still respect the will of Denton voters. “That’s what being a representative is all about,” Stevens said. “It’s about listening to your constituents.” Decriminalize Denton blasted the ordeal over Prop B as an “attack on democracy” in a press release. Advocates point to other Texas cities such as Austin that have imple- mented near-identical measures. Voters in San Marcos, Elgin, Harker Heights and Killeen similarly approved decriminaliza- tion during the midterm elections. But oth- ers have argued that the merits of the ordinance aside, the city of Denton’s hands are tied. Prop B would mean, in part, that police could no longer issue citations or execute ar- rests for misdemeanor quantities of mari- juana, except under certain limited circumstances. It would also bar law en- forcement from using the “smell test,” meaning the scent of weed couldn’t serve as an excuse for search or seizure. City Manager Sara Hensley explained during the Feb. 21 work session that Denton doesn’t have the authority to implement the parts of Prop B that run afoul of state law. She noted in her presentation that from Nov. 1 to Jan. 17, local officers made 52 citations and/or arrests related to pot or parapherna- lia. (Prop B advocates have asked to see the demographic makeup of this, as did the Ob- server, but the police department didn’t re- spond to the request.) Hensley argued that the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, which mandates that police enforce state law, essentially super- sedes the proposition. Denton’s police chief further vowed that the department would continue to make minor marijuana offenses a low priority. To Deb Armintor of Decriminalize Den- ton, though, hearing the number of arrests and citations was “infuriating.” “This is what they call ‘low priority’?” Ar- mintor, a former Denton City Council mem- ber, told the Observer. “This is business as usual.” Another local marijuana advocate spoke at the February meeting. Eva Grecco de- scribed how she went out day after day to gather enough signatures to place Prop B on the ballot. Many seniors can’t afford to spend thousands of dollars on medications each month, she said, and marijuana is a via- ble alternative. “‘The times, they are a’changing.’ I am a mother. I am a grandmother. I am a great- grandmother,” Grecco said. “I myself do not smoke marijuana, but I fought very hard for this Proposition B to pass.” Grecco also tried to appeal to the council by noting that some members are them- selves parents: “The more you fight the will of the people, these are the things your chil- dren will remember in the future. “I’m just really angry — angry that all this time has gone by and certain members of this council and city manager have refused to listen or comply with the will of the peo- ple,” she continued. “Whether you like it or not, your personal choices do not matter. We do not vote for any of you for your personal choices.” Grecco, Stevens, Armintor and the rest of Decriminalize Denton aren’t alone in their vexation. Some of the city’s voters have re- ported experiencing déjà vu. The battle over Prop B in uber-conservative Texas isn’t the first time that their voices have been muted following a landslide vote. T he Texas sun punished the protesters one brutally hot summer afternoon in 2015, the day that Cindy Spoon’s friends were arrested. One of the demon- strators, a 92-year-old Denton woman, rested in a rocking chair outside the drilling site. Her son chained himself to the gate, and her daughter-in-law, who was going through chemotherapy, planted herself in the driveway. Spoon recalled her friends getting carted away by police but said she wasn’t worried about being arrested herself. Their purpose was too important. “I think we all felt like we were defending our fracking ban,” Spoon said. “It was good to see people still fighting at that point.” The Denton Drilling Awareness Group had turned its “Frack Free Denton” cam- paign into a movement. Spoon and other ac- tivists in the community, spanning various political affiliations, had come together with the same goal: to pass a local ban on hydrau- lic fracking, a controversial method of oil and natural gas extraction. Residents were concerned about fracking-related air and water pollution, plus the traffic, noise and safety and health hazards brought by drill- ing, the environmental digital outlet Green- Source DFW reported at the time. Months before the arrests, in November 2014, fracking opponents were feeling hope- ful: Nearly 59% of voters supported the ban, making Denton the first city in the state to pass such a measure. Then came the legal battles. The day after the fracking ban passed, two lawsuits were filed in Austin to chal- lenge it, BBC reported at the time. Naysayers had argued that the ban infringed on the rights of mineral owners. Many Denton residents viewed the col- lege town as a liberal island in a sea of red, but Texas’ thirst for oil and gas was appar- ently too great for the ordinance to stay put. Before long, Gov. Greg Abbott had signed into law a statewide ban on local fracking bans. In June 2015, a company began to drill within city limits, Spoon recalled. “Many of us that had been involved realized that we played by all the rules, we did the voting and it still wasn’t enough,” she said — but | UNFAIR PARK | Alicia Claytor Activist Nick Stevens led the movement to pass proposition B in Denton. >> p6
