One wonders what grave sins Dallasites must have committed in the past to have ended up with an Attorney General as interminably productive as Ken Paxton. The same law enforcement official impeached for corruption from a Republican-dominated House. Only to be acquitted of all charges on a party line Senate vote despite the entire world seeing the receipts. That’s the person who now has thoughts on how Dallas should enforce laws related to illicit drug use.

What’s behind his latest beef? Simply put, the City Council, interim city manager and police chief announced their intention to enforce Proposition R, aka, The Dallas Freedom Act.

The proposition, approved by 67% of Dallas voters, would ban the citation and arrest of citizens carrying less than four ounces of marijuana. According to Ken, this expression of freedom must not be allowed to stand in the same state in which Governor Abbott went out of his way to reclassify fentanyl overdoses as “poisonings” with the signing of House Bill 6 (HB6) just last year.

Because when it comes to SOME illicit drug users, our vaunted law-and-order officials in Texas would much rather hook them up than lock them up nowadays.

So now when fentanyl users die from overdosing on that particular illicit drug, they need not suffer the stigma of being called a junkie. Here in Texas, the Lege decided that those drug users were “murdered” by “accidentally” killing themselves. While, it must be stressed, yet again, they were in the process of deliberately ingesting unprescribed illicit drugs. 

But just ignore that part. Thanks to HB6, their deaths are now 100% the dealer’s fault. Thus, Paxton’s office sees no reason to sue cities for refusing to arrest fentanyl users. Instead, law enforcement officials are encouraged to deem them as “victims.”

Never mind that the last we looked, even untainted Adderall sold on the street is still classified as an illicit drug. So why all the leeway for those users? And how much did the decision to reclassify fentanyl have to do with the innate characteristics of who the perceived “victims” are?

Let’s hope city attorneys ask when Paxton gets around to making noises about how Dallas needs to enforce Texas drug laws.