By Cate Carrejo

On Monday, March 1, Texas State Rep. David Simpson (R-Texas), filed a bill with the Texas state legislature for a full repeal on marijuana restrictions. If Simpson’s bill passes, marijuana will be regulated like crops. Texas residents would be able to grow marijuana in their backyards, seeds could be sold at local retailers and trade would have no regulations.

This approach to legalization is significantly different from other states that have permitted marijuana in recent months. Whereas Colorado, Washington and Alaska are heavily taxing the plant for state revenue, Simpson’s bill places no such legal obstruction on the sale of marijuana.

The provisions of the bill are in keeping with both the GOP and Christianity according to Simpson. “Everything that God made is good, even marijuana. The conservative thought is that government doesn’t need to fix something that God made good,” said Simpson.

While Simpson might be wrongly interchanging “conservative” and “Christian,” he makes a good point from both perspectives.

The foundation of the GOP is less regulation: fewer taxes allow the free market to expand and less government intervention makes for a happier, freer population. Recently, however, it seems that the GOP has become the political arm of conservative Christianity, abandoning the foundation of its political ideologies in favor of legislating private issues like birth control and same-sex marriage in adherence to Christian values. Simpson’s spin of the bill is savvy: if Texas legislators fail to pass the bill, their Christian values may be called into question, which basically equates to no reelection in the Lone Star State.

The Christian perspective of Simpson’s argument suddenly made me realize that I knew of no specific teaching about the Catholic or Christian view of marijuana. Despite years of Catholic high school and the general idea that marijuana is “sinful,” no one had ever actually explained to me why marijuana use goes against religious dogma. I have to wonder what makes this plant so dangerous to your religious beliefs.

According to USCatholic.org, marijuana interrupts the natural mental processes that allow communion with God and “if any activity undermines or degrades our rational capacities, we have moral reasons to avoid that activity.”

It is a compelling rationale, but I am not sure it undermines Simpson’s argument. After all, alcohol, in moderation, is morally permissible by some Christian denominations – including Catholicism –and many studies have shown that alcohol’s impairment on motor function, logical reasoning and judgment are much more severe than those caused by marijuana.

Although Simpson’s rhetoric is a bit simplistic, it drives right through the heart of the matter: marijuana has an unfairly negative reputation. In light of the current national attitude toward marijuana, lawmakers should begin reexamining reasons for prohibition, instead of staunchly sticking to the legislative and political norm.

Simpson’s argument should be laughed out of Austin for its obvious religious bias, but it is possible that if the bill gets enough attention, it could spark a long-overdue national conversation about the GOP’s ideological foundation.

For too long the party has turned away from its promise of small government; instead of regulating the economy and the sky-high defense budget, the GOP has seemed much more concerned with regulating citizens’ personal lives instead. There is little hope that Simpson’s bill will actually pass through the Texas state legislature, but to me the bill’s introduction means a win-win.

If it happens to pass, Texas achieves an unlikely win for deregulation and will encourage other states to loosen marijuana policies. If it fails to pass, it could turn national attention to the hypocrisy of the GOP.

Here is hoping that my home state can swing this scrappy little bill into national news.

Cate Carrejo, FCRH ’17, is a communications and media studies major from Houston, Texas.