Hope Flickers after Unprecedented Week for Texas Pot Reforms

AUSTIN (AP) — It was a big week for weed in Texas. Three bills in the Republican-controlled Legislature that would decriminalize pot or legalize a marijuana oil to treat seizures all advanced. Supporters of marijuana reforms called it “unprecedented” progress after years of proposals going nowhere. Most of the gains are only symbolic. One bill sent to the House floor makes it legal to buy and sell pot in Texas, but it has virtually no chance of going further, much less to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. But with a month to go in the Legislature, some see hope in a Republican-backed measure that would allow some people with seizures to access a marijuana extract. That bill is sponsored by Senator Kevin Eltife of Tyler. The proposal has cleared the Senate, and a vote in the House could come early as next week.