Marijuana Apparently Unpopular in Texas

[TexasTowelie]

This shows the rate of marijuana use "in the past month" by people 12 and older. The data were collected in 2010 and 2011.
Credit SAMHSA, Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, NSDUH, 2011 and 2012


Texas has one of the lowest rates of marijuana use in the country, according to a closely watched federal report. Recently released state level data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) shows less than five percent of Texas adults said they had used marijuana in the last month.

Among teenagers, six percent reporting having used marijuana in the last month. That rose to almost 14 percent for the 18-25 year old demographic. Only three percent of adults over 26 in Texas said they had used pot in the last month. The survey data was collected in 2010 and 2011.

"People who are against (marijuana legalization) will say, 'See, prohibition works,' and those who want to legalize it will say, 'There's no real danger,'" says William Martin, director of the Baker Institute's Drug Policy Program at Rice University. "I think you see in states like Colorado, there doesn't seem to be any rush to use by young people, which is what I think is what most people are most concerned about."

The NSDUH survey did not ask about specific concerns, but 38 percent of Texas adults said using marijuana once a month carries a "great risk."

More at http://kut.org/post/marijuana-apparently-unpopular-texas .

[font color=green]This poll and the headline are bullshit.[/font]

[yeoman6987]

1. Fine then the states that want it, pass it

The ones that don't have an interest like Texas can vote it down if they feel like it. Leave it up to the voters!

[4b5f940728b232b034e4]

2. I went to college in TX and never saw it.

In fact, I've lived in eight states and the only state I think I've seen it in so far is WA. I saw someone with a bong in Cal Anderson Park in Seattle. I assume it was what I think it was.

[BlueJazz]

3. "38 percent of Texas adults said using marijuana once a month carries a "great risk."

That's like asking a group of Golden Retrievers to explain Quantum Entanglement*



*(Quantum entanglement is a physical phenomenon that occurs when pairs or groups of particles are generated or interact in ways such that the quantum state of each particle cannot be described independently)

[blogslut]

4. Oh yes.

Total bullshit.

[hobbit709]

5. I find those numbers hard to believe

That was either skewed sampling or a lot of people lied.

[TexasTowelie]

6. They must have blocked the survey takers from calling anybody in Austin.

It's difficult to walk down any of the streets without getting the hint of reefer madness.

[PDittie]

7. I'll represent the minority vote here

and say that I think the poll comes pretty close to reflecting the will of Texans who get polled, answer truthfully, and how they vote -- which would predominantly be older, whiter, Christian conservatives in the suburbs, exurbs, and rural parts of the state. Those folks are the vast minority of Texas residents... but a comfortable majority of those who vote regularly.

These stats are so old (2006) that they are nearly irrelevant, yet they show city dwellers outnumbering country folk by more than a 5-1 margin. It's safe to say that ratio has expanded over the past eight years.

http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/tif/population.html

75% of the population of Texas lives within the DFW-Houston-San Antonio triangle. (Granted, there's plenty of boondocks in between.) These cities are among the fastest-growing ones in the nation. Yet Texas electorally remains as red as a baboon's ass.

(You didn't need reminding that Texas is a non-voting state, did you?)

Anecdotally, the second failure of Kinky Friedman, who ran in 2014 strictly on a pro-pot agenda, to win a contested Democratic primary -- running against a Junior-Samples look-alike, no-name-no-campaign contestant -- is indicative of something. I'm afraid to hazard a guess as to what, though.

[jmowreader]

8. Is that "lowest rate of pot smoking"...

or "lowest rate of people who will admit to smoking pot"? Texas has a long tradition of throwing the book at marijuana smokers. It is very possible that most of the people who smoke pot also think, "if I admit to this person I smoke pot, I'll be picking up trash off the side of the road for the next six months." There has GOT to be a better way of collecting data than self-reporting when you're working on stats for a state that loves throwing pot-heads in gaol like Texas does.