Houston misdemeanor marijuana arrests went from about 35 a year to about 440. Voters get a say November 3.

Misdemeanor marijuana arrests by Houston police have risen more than twelvefold under Mayor John Whitmire, from roughly 35 a year to roughly 440, according to HPD records Houston Public Media obtained by public records request. Houston voters decide on November 3 whether to make those arrests the department’s lowest enforcement priority.

Why it matters

Possession of two ounces or less is a Class B misdemeanor in Texas. An arrest still means a booking, a court setting, a case on the misdemeanor docket, and a record that follows a person to job applications.

At roughly 440 a year that is a standing claim on officer hours and court time, and the city has not explained publicly what changed.

By the numbers

About 440 misdemeanor marijuana arrests a year now, from HPD records obtained by Houston Public Media under the public information act
About 35 a year across 2021 to 2023. Two outlets that wrote up the records, The Marijuana Herald and Ganjapreneur, give the same two counts and the same base years
About 12.6 times the earlier rate, or about 1,157 percent, which is the increase those two counts describe
72 percent of marijuana arrests over the past five years involved Black residents
22.7 percent of Houston residents are Black, per the Census Bureau
Nearly 40,000 signatures submitted by Ground Game Texas, 22,178 verified, against the 20,000 qualified signatures the Texas Local Government Code requires
Houston City Council placed the measure on the ballot unanimously on August 12
Election day: November 3

What the coverage buried

The Marijuana Herald’s September 4 writeup, which is how this story traveled beyond Houston, carries the arrest counts and the racial breakdown accurately. It never mentions the Houston Freedom Act.

That is the one thing in this story a Houston reader can act on. The same city whose arrest numbers rose twelvefold has a measure on the November 3 ballot that would make those arrests the lowest enforcement priority, and a reader who finished the article would not know an election was coming. Open it and check.

The other side

Houston Police Officers’ Union president Douglas Griffith questioned whether the increase reflects how arrests are recorded rather than how often they happen. That is a serious objection and it deserves to be taken seriously. Records systems get reclassified, charges get coded differently, and a marijuana charge is often filed alongside a traffic stop or another offense rather than as the reason for the stop. A raw arrest count does not separate those.

The objection is testable and untested. Neither the mayor’s office nor HPD answered Houston Public Media’s questions about the increase. A department that believes its numbers are being misread can settle it in an afternoon by releasing incident level data showing how many of the 440 were standalone possession arrests. Until it does, the count stands and the explanation does not.

Worth noting who is objecting to the status quo here. Ground Game Texas came at this from the left on racial disparity. The case from the other direction is about scarce officer hours and court capacity. Both arrive at the same question, which is why the measure cleared council without a dissenting vote.

What to watch

November 3: the Houston Freedom Act on the Houston ballot. It would also require officers to announce themselves before entering a home, banning no knock warrants.
Whether HPD releases incident level data separating standalone possession arrests from charges added to another offense.
Whether the mayor’s office responds to the records findings.
Whether the misdemeanor docket shows a matching increase in filings, which would test the reclassification theory from the court side.

Bottom line

Mayor Whitmire says low level marijuana enforcement has not been a police priority in a long time. His own department’s arrest records, obtained under the public information act, describe a twelvefold increase on his watch.

One of those two things is wrong, and the city has had since September 4 to say which. On November 3 the voters get to answer it themselves.