In a speech given in the Texas State Capitol in November 2007, Tim Timmons, who has multiple sclerosis, addressed the audience from his wheelchair, claiming, “In the state of Texas, I am a criminal at large.”
 
Timmons stated he has a “constitutional right to sleep at night,” which is why he now uses medicinal marijuana. The alternative, he said, is killing him. Medical marijuana is not legal in the Texas, although more than a dozen other states have decriminalized cannabis for pain relief.

Medical Marijuana - Safer Alternative?
“I take between 18 and 23 pills, capsules, narcotics, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, dextroamphetamines, muscle relaxants, and seizure medications every day,” explained Timmons, whose access to safer medications has been denied by state and federal laws. “At the end of the evening, I only end up with a more toxic liver, heading straight for cirrhosis and more and more hallucinations.”

“In modern societies, a finding of adverse effects does not settle the issue of the legal status of a commodity,” states The Global Cannabis Commission Report, published by The Beckley Foundation in collaboration with Oxford University Press in September 2008. “If it did, alcohol, automobiles and stairways, for instance, would all be prohibited since use of each of these results in substantial casualties.”

Penalties Disproportionate
For many like Timmons, the most adverse effects of medicinal marijuana use are arrest and incarceration.

While some police officials will admit that a marijuana arrest is “up to the discretion of the officer,” the penalties in the Lone Star state are severe even for small amounts. The maximum sentence in Texas for one ounce or less of marijuana is 180 days, and the maximum fine is $2,000.

The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program reports that in 2007 alone there were 70,525 cannabis-related arrests in Texas. In all, 97% of the marijuana arrests in Texas during this time period were for possession.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health indicates that there were an estimated 1.4 million cannabis users in Texas in 2007—up only .05% since 2003—and the state ranks 12th in the nation for marijuana arrests.

Real Crime Enforcement Loses
“The need to improve clearance rates for serious crime, to devote greater resources to white‐collar crime, and to address the problems presented by more dangerous drugs all provide compelling reasons for society to reconsider whether the opportunity costs of marijuana law enforcement are acceptable,” according to Dr. Jon Gettman’s October 2009 report, Marijuana in Texas: Arrests, Usage and Related Data.

Timmons’ story is like that of countless numbers of other Texans. According to the Texas Coalition for Compassionate Care , the number of potential patients in Texas who would benefit from medicinal marijuana numbers in the hundreds of thousands.

And while Travis county, the seat of Texas state government, eased up on marijuana possession offenders in 2007 to prevent further overcrowding in jails, the other counties in the state have not followed suit.

With Liberty and Marijuana for All?
Dax Garvin, an Austin attorney, believes that solving the drug problem starts with the decriminalization of marijuana for both medicinal and social use.

“Pushing more people into the criminal justice system, whether it is by placing them on probation or putting them in jail or prison, is not the answer,” states Garvin. “We (the US) already have the highest percentage of our population involved in this system, at least among the developed world.”

Come 2011 at the next meeting of the Texas State legislature, the legalization of medicinal marijuana will once again be introduced in bill form, and many in the pro-legalization camp believe “this will be our year.”