Just when I thought the federal gub’mint, under the watch of Trump-Musk had the supreme hold on idiocy in policy, well, here comes a Texas legislator to buy that old adage about “go big, or go home,” regarding blatant stupidity.
Senator Charles Perry (R-Lubbock), who represents Senate District 28 in the state’s upper chamber, filed Senate Bill 1868 on March 4. Perry, who authored the ridiculous Senate Bill 3, which called for a total ban of all THC products in the state, introduced the bill to address the regulation of kratom, which is a herbal substance that many consumers have chosen to utilize in place of harmful, addictive painkillers to treat chronic conditions.
The bill would also classify several native plants and fungi as controlled substances under the Texas Controlled Substances Act, which would create criminal offenses for possessing the plants listed in the bill.
Perry, who bills himself as a “common sense, conservative Republican” on his official Facebook page, is anything but “common sense” or “conservative,” based on legislation such as this.
Among the common plants that grow in most parts of Texas included in this ridiculous bill are mimosas; four o’ clocks; ground cherry and mountain laurels.
The bill cites alleged psychoactive or hallucinogenic properties found in the plants listed.
If this bill were to pass into law, the possession of “any part, portion, or derivative” of any of the plants listed would be a Class B misdemeanor, which is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 per day.
The bill, which has drawn considerable criticism for its absurd overreach, passed a committee vote and is headed to the Senate for consideration.
In essence, this bill would allow for the confiscation of personal property if any of the designated as contraband plants grow there.
Now while several of the plants listed in Perry’s proposed legislation have been found to contain psychoactive properties, mostly within their seeds, it still seems a far stretch. Although mountain laurels, which grow all over the state, especially in the Hill Country region, have been struck from the legislation in its most current iteration, who is thinking these beautiful plants and trees are just good for obtaining a high from their seeds?
It’s beyond ridiculous. The idea of outlawing plants and trees just show how out-of-step with the people the current crop of legislators really is. There are true issues afoot that the legislature could certainly make a priority instead of wasting time on folderol such as this. I have soapboxed in this space on public education a time or 20, so I won’t get too off the topic of this particular bad bill up for my rant here, but suffice it to say, that is one pre-eminent issue that deserves actual solutions and support instead of a scam marketed as a “choice.”
We Texans grow up and learn about a great history of Texans as freedom fighters, and we hear screams about personal freedom and small government, but measures such as Perry’s bill to outlaw plants and his other bill concerning THC products signal anything but.
As a fiscal conservative and civil libertarian, I believe in personal freedom and government so small that, to quote that sage Grover Norquist, it could be drowned in the bathtub, but apparently our state legislators do not.
SB 1868 is strictly an affront to the personal liberties of Texans, and it should be an insult to the intelligence of all Texans that such nonsense as it is allowed to gain traction within our state legislature.
Perry is from the flat lands of Lubbock where there is nothing but dirt and tumbleweeds. He wouldn’t know much about the beauty of many of the state’s native plants and wildflowers, but he, like many other of our legislators is living in a garden of stupidity, which continues to thrive.
