Pot cases down, confusion up after pot law change KTRK
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When he took the bench in 2019, the seats in Harris County Court at Law Judge Franklin Bynum s misdemeanor courtroom used to be filled with people trying to fight possession of marijuana cases.
Now, nearly two years after a change to Texas agriculture laws made it legal for farmers to grow hemp, Bynum s court rarely sees those cases. Marijuana is still illegal in Texas, but the law made it harder, more expensive and more labor-intensive for investigators to differentiate between the illegal drug and legal hemp.
13 Investigates analyzed pot possession cases in Harris County and the surrounding area starting a year before the law changed. We compared it with the 19 months after the law changed.