Police officers give a press conference at the state capitol against marijuana reform. Click the video to start playing.

Texas NORML was live streaming the news conference where the Texas Police Chiefs Association is speaking out against marijuana. It can be insanely infuriating to see officers in uniform get paid on the clock with taxpayer dollars, driving squad cars to the capitol on taxpayer dollars, to talk about something that for the most part they have no expertise on, asking for you to waste another 700+ million dollars in tax revenue on arresting people for low level possession.

The video has several officers get in front of podium followed by a few civilians, one of which admits he’s not from Texas at all, to state their case. At times it’s points of telling half truths, stating conflicting information, telling full on lies, and then emotional pandering against doctor patient professional relationships for possibly the weirdest reasons.

It wasn’t good enough for the officers that are staunch opponents of legalization in the medical realm (or any sort of legalization at all) to make fools of themselves at the first committee hearing on HB63, but they decided to double down and hold a press conference to do it again. Only this time they thought that it wouldn’t look as bad without state representatives grilling them about using anecdotal evidence, inaccurate statistics, and conflicting lines of thought.

In this conference at one point an officer tells the audience that the association feels that the current law in place is more than enough. And that they aren’t trying to have the current program repealed because of the broad number of patients it reaches, to include patients with “intractable epilepsy, (sic)bipolar disorder, and people going through cancer treatments.” And that there is no medical reason to expand the list. Sadly only 1/3 of that list is true. Only patients with intractable epilepsy can receive treatment with low THC cannabis in Texas. Obviously with this type of statement it would indicate that they actually don’t have an issue with more than just one type of patient getting the help they need.

So why are they fighting to keep the list from expanding? Why is a law enforcement agent with no actual medical expertise telling the public that he knows what is medically acceptable and what isn’t, only to later on admit he is not a medical expert?

There are times in the video where individuals are stating some of the strangest cases against any sort of legalization. A claim is made that the reason why edible marijuana treats are made is to entice children into buying them and getting them hooked. Not that possibly the state of Texas does not allow for marijuana to be consumed by smoking, but to entice children. Another claims that the issue with marijuana is that it’s a plant that has to be grown, and growing that plant places a burden on the taxpayer to do so. It requires farming equipment, to include on some farms lights and a diesel generator.

There is no tax burden on the average citizen, or any citizen when a cannabis business opens up shop and starts to grow and sell legal cannabis. The shops pay exorbitant licensing fees to cover the programs regulating the industry, outrageous property tax rates like any other property owner in Texas is paying right now, spending money on utilities and equipment to follow suit. If anything these businesses are dumping massive amounts of cash into the local economies where they set up shop and grow their product. Lights at night in an open field should not be much an issue, unless one would think that highway construction should never take place at night when traffic is at a minimal to non-existent flow. Diesel Generators are not really loud, and they aren’t really very smelly either as claimed in the conference. If you’ve ever been around one, you only know of it because you’re within about 40-50 yards and can hear it. Just like a person can hear a pickup truck running.

There is so much that takes place in the video, that to write a full article would take days. So grab yourself a tumbler of your favorite beverage and large bowl of popcorn to enjoy as you watch the video. And while you’re doing that you can contact your representative and tell them to support these bills.