Bill aims to take 'marihuana' out of Texas Statutes

[metalbot]

Apologies - the article is behind a Statesman paywall if you've exceeded your limit of free articles:

https://www.statesman.com/news/20190211/bill-aims-to-take-marihuana-out-of-texas-statutes

If one thing is beyond debate about the strict “marihuana” prohibitions in Texas, it’s that the word is misspelled dozens of times in decades-old state statutes.

Leave it to a former Spanish teacher to do some retroactive copy-editing.

“I wanted to get a pen and write over it,” freshman state Rep. Terry Meza, D-Irving, said of her reaction when she first noticed the h-instead-of-j spelling of marijuana repeated throughout state law books.

Instead, she has introduced House Bill 1196, which would replace all the phonetic “marihuana” references with the plant’s scientific name: “cannabis.”

It is sadly not quite the "removal" that I'd be hoping for, but I thought it was interesting that this was even on the radar. I don't think much about the legalization question these days, but I'd be slightly worried that there are a limited number of times that you can get legislators to talk about marijuana in our every-other-year legislation model.

[walkingman]

1. Changing the name or spelling will not remove the racist implications.

Texas will be the last state in the nation to change marijuana laws. It would pass easily if put on the ballot but the GOP likes to tell us what we want and need. I say this as a native Texan.

[marble falls]

2. It means they're looking at legalization. And cleaning up the laws either way.

[Javaman]

3. ...