See some of the wildest things said about marijuana by politicians and public figures. less A Republican Texas lawmaker filed a bill Monday to completely deregulate marijuana in the Lone Star State, striking any mention of the plant from state laws. See some of the wildest things said about marijuana ... more A Republican Texas lawmaker filed a bill Monday to completely deregulate marijuana in the Lone Star State, striking any mention of the plant from state laws. Photo: Craig F. Walker, Getty Images Photo: Craig F. Walker, Getty Images Image 1 of / 87 Caption Close Texas lawmaker files bill to legalize marijuana 1 / 87 Back to Gallery

In Texas, a conservative lawmaker filed a bill to completely deregulate marijuana in the Lone Star State Monday, proposing to strike any mention of the psychoactive plant from state law.

"Everything that God made is good, even marijuana" said state Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, who filed the bill. "The conservative thought is that government doesn't need to fix something that God made good."

The 24-page bill begins: "The following provisions are repealed," then lists dozens of Texas statutes related to marijuana. If the Legislature were to approve the bill, pot in Texas would be regulated like any common crop.

In a press release, Simpson said he supported regulating marijuana like the state regulates "tomatoes, jalapeños or coffee."

It's a markedly different approach to marijuana law reform than other states have adopted. In the last year, blue states Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Washington, D.C., have legalize pot within a detailed framework of taxation and regulation. But it would not be so with Simpson's bill, which would offer no such restrictions.

In its current form, the bill has virtually no chance of winning legislative approval and the governor's signature, according to Gary Hale, a former intelligence chief in the Drug Intelligence Agency's Houston division and a drug policy scholar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston.

"A blanket decriminalization of marijuana and classification as a vegetable is not going to happen," he said. "Overall legalization will happen but in my opinion it will happen in incremental baby steps."

In his column, Simpson reflected on his Republican beliefs in small government and individual liberties, and he invoked biblical verse to explain his initiative to repeal marijuana prohibition. He told KETK he wants to "reframe the current marijuana discussion" by talking prohibition repeal in terms of common conservative values.

That unique angle makes Texas' first stab at legalization stand out dramatically from other states' efforts, said Dean Becker, a Houston based radio host on the Drug Truth Network.

"I think it's the first time in America that such a bold and semi religious presentation of thought has been put forward about the cannabis plant," he said.

But Simpson's perspective resonates with 85-year-old Houstonian Ann Lee, who founded the group Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition and traveled to Washington D.C. last week to advocate legalization at a conservative political conference.

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"Prohibition goes against the fundamental principles of the Republican party. Prohibition is against the fundamental principle of freedom," she said. "When you look at the facts, it's not conservative to support prohibition."

In June 2014, Lee was one of about 7,000 delegates to the Texas Republican Party convention in Fort Worth, where she spoke in favor of legalizing medical marijuana in the state, citing the benefits it's provided to her son. But the party voted to oppose marijuana legalization in its official platform.

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