Poll finds 75% of Texans support medical marijuana

[Judi Lynn]

Nov. 18, 2004, 1:47AM

Poll finds 75% of Texans support medical marijuana
Legislation that legalizes its use is expected next year
By TODD ACKERMAN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

A strong majority of Texans favor legalizing the medical use of marijuana, according to a new poll.

Seventy-five percent said people with cancer and other serious illnesses should be allowed to use marijuana for medical purposes as long as their doctor approves, according to a Scripps Howard Texas poll question commissioned by Texans for Medical Marijuana. Nineteen percent said they would oppose such a bill.

"I'm surprised support is that high," said Dr. Richard Evans, president of the Texas Cancer Center and medical adviser to Texans for Medical Marijuana. "That should help when we next testify before the Legislature."

Bills that would have legalized the medical use of marijuana have been introduced in the last four sessions of the Texas Legislature but have never passed. Evans said he expects legislation again will be introduced in 2005.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2906937
(Free registration is required)

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BY THE NUMBERS
A poll question commissioned by Texans for Medical Marijuana found a cross-section of support for its cause. The 2004 Texas Poll broke down the responses using the following criteria:
• Age: 81 percent of those 18 to 29 and 72 percent of those 60 and older
• Income : 74 percent of both those making less than $10,000 a year and those making $60,001 and above
• Race/Ethnicity: 74 percent of anglos, 79 percent of Hispanics and 80 percent of blacks
• Education: 69 percent of those who didn't graduate high school and 71 percent of those who did graduate work
• Gender: 75 percent of both men and women

[UL_Approved]

1. It passed in Montana,

and it should pass in Texas. Those laws are the first steps to breaking down our fascist leaders. When the war on drugs disappears, the rest will follow.

[NJ_Lib]

2. Ahh... So the people of Texas...

... are not as conservative as we may have thought....

Or am I missing something here? Why does this not sound right to me...? IN TEXAS?????????

[Bridget Burke]

3. Don't believe everything you hear about Texas.

Let me rephrase that--many of the bad things you hear about Texas are true. But there are some other things you may not know; it's a big state.

When will they ask about the non-medical use of marijuana? (We're on the border here, you know.)

[musette_sf]

6. They'd better get some better stuff then

because you'll get a headache from most of that schwag before you get off :smoke:

[rainbow4321]

5. You're missing something big....

<rolling eyes>...implying that most Texans are conservatives is like saying that all Americans support shrub. Remember, Dallas County elected a Hispanic lesbian for county sheriff on 11/2. There were at least two blue counties <Travis and El Paso> and Dallas County was about 1% shy of being blue and the Texas/Mexico areas of Texas are bright blue if you look at a blue/red county map comparison.
Non-conservatives ARE down here..it's just that no one comes looking for us very often and the only time you hear "Texan" nowadays is when shrub picks one of his Texas neocon lackies to promote in return for their cover-ups of his records and misdeeds.
Kerry got around 38% of Texan votes and Clinton got more than that each time he ran. Problem is, the national dems are not known for paying much attention to TX dems..which sucks..think of how many EV we have down here. At some point in time TX will be a battleground state and then maybe that will get their attention??

[Ilsa]

12. Tx will go blue soon because of the changing demographics. n/t

[genieroze]

15. Lets all move to Texas

Isn't Texas really polluted? I know I'm from NJ what's the old joke? Kiss her where it smells, take her to New jersey. I heard it's really polluted because of all the pro polluting republicans they have there. Is it?

[rainbow4321]

18. Thanks to shrub..

he had a "grandfather clause" put in all of the air laws that he signed when he was gov down here. Basically, his factory owner friends/pioneer$ didn't have to comply with any of the "new laws".
At one point, Dallas came "thisclose" to losing it's federal highway funding because the EPA was so pissed about our filthy air down here. Below is a link to how he destroyed our air, etc...

This is just one of the tidbits IGNORED by the media when he first was running in the 2000...one of many things never reported about his TX regime:


http://www.txpeer.org/Bush/Quiet_Little_War.html

During his campaign for governor, George W. Bush advocated a philosophy of letting "Texans Run Texas". With respect to the environment, this policy has more closely resembled "Let Texas Industry Run Texas".
In a three-part series, PEER will examine how Gov. Bush's appointees at the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) undermined new federal public health standards and state pollution inspections, rolled back regulations, and attempted to manipulate pollution data to help the industries they were charged with regulating. Taken individually, each of these decisions is a matter of questionable policy; examined together, they suggest an ongoing strategy to strip environmental protections from a state with some of the weakest standards in the country. PEER will also document the industries that benefited from these actions and their financial support for Gov. Bush's political campaigns.

[struggle4progress]

4. Tax reform: repeal the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 eom

[tanyev]

10. Have you seen the documentary Hemp Revolution?

Fascinating stuff. Makes the case that the Marijuana Tax Act came about because of intensive lobbying from the lumber industry (Hearst used his newspapers to publish many marijuana fear stories) and the oil industry. Hemp posed a threat to both industries. Ah, the more things change the more they stay the same.

[struggle4progress]

11. I'm afraid I haven't watched a movie about hemp since "Reefer Madness."

[justjones]

7. Yeeeeeeehhhhhhaaaaawwww! n/t

[LiberteToujours]

8. And with Bush in charge, those pesky activist judges won't get in the way!

Oh.. Bush doesn't want this passed? Okay then, activist judges are okay in this circumstance. Claiming to be working for the will of the people is only valid when it's politically expedient.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

9. but.... texas is a red state and red states are EVIL!!

sorry, couldn't help it. :silly:

[wuushew]

13. Weed will never be legal in Texas

they haven't even admitted that prohibition of alcohol was a failure

[Gruenemann]

16. How is 'partially wet' defined?

I find it hard to believe that Travis county (Austin!) is not awash in alchohol. Hays county (home of party central Texas State U) is also 'partial.' Thank goddess I live in Bexar county (San Antonio), well lubricated....

[tanyev]

19. Partially wet can mean

you can buy alcohol at restaurants and clubs, but not in the grocery store. Allen, where I do my grocery shopping, was that way until a recent election. That meant a special trip somewhere else just for beer and wine. Now I can buy beer and wine at the grocery store, but I still can't buy any hard liquor in this county. I think I would have to go to Dallas county to buy that.

[Bridget Burke]

23. "The Heights" is officially dry.

The Heights was a town to the north of Houston, annexed into the big city in 1918. It became dry in 1912 & has retained that status; the rest of Houston is ***not*** dry.

Now the Heights is a desirable close-in neighborhood & some restaurant owners are trying to change things. The law meant to prevent a beer joint on every corner makes it hard to run a profitable restaurant.

The Metroplex (Dallas/Fort Worth) is a real crazy quilt of wet/dry/sorta-dry jurisdictions.

[demily]

25. Sorry

But I think this map is inaccurate. I live in Austin (Travis County) and there are at least three fully stocked liquor stores within a mile of my house. Also, I can buy beer and wine at any grocery or convenience store. Maybe this map is dated?

Texas is a lot more liberal than most people think. There are all kinds of people in Texas. It's not Utah!!

[rainbow4321]

28. And we can see how well it works...

NOT....

Impaired Driving by Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC)
In 1999, Texas drivers with:
•BACs of .10 and above were involved in an estimated 161,900 crashes that killed 1,345 and injured 55,600
•BACs between .08-.09 were involved in an estimated 2,790 crashes that killed 118 and injured 2,500
•Positive BACs below .08 were involved in an estimated 5,500 crashes that killed 288 and injured 5,400
Costs
Alcohol is a factor in 25% of Texas’ crash costs. Alcohol-related crashes in Texas cost the public an estimated $10.3 billion in 1999, including $4.5 billion in monetary costs and almost $5.8 billion in quality of life losses. (For definitions of the cost categories, see the definitions fact sheet.) Alcohol-related crashes are deadlier and more serious than other crashes. People other than the drinking driver paid $6.3 billion of the alcohol-related crash bill

[Not_Giving_Up]

29. Pasadena is dry

And it's in Harris County, which is shown as wet.

[drunkdriver-in-chief]

14. And 100% support recreational booze

Damn texicans are the biggest druggies in the country.

[rainbow4321]

30. We elected shrub as gov, didn't we...

http://www.sonofbush.com/cocaine.htm

Republican GOP candidate for president Texas Governor George W. Bush refuses to answer the question about his prior use of Cocaine. Every other Republican candidate have all said the never used cocaine except George W. Bush. Why does he refuse to deny he's used cocaine? Probably because George W. Bush actually did cocaine. If Bush didn't use cocaine he'd say he didn't use cocaine.

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/02/bush.dui/

WEST ALLIS, Wisconsin -- Texas Gov. George W. Bush acknowledged Thursday that in 1976 he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol near his parents' home in Kennebunkport, Maine

[Not_Giving_Up]

17. A few points to ponder....

1. There ARE plenty of dems in Texas...even in the Houston area.

2. Yes, some parts of Texas are very very polluted (Pasadena, Baytown), but there are still some parts that have breathable air (and maybe even drinkable water).

3. While there are some towns and cities that are DRY (Pasadena for one), many a toker reside here.

4. I have mega back problems and migraines...I'd love to see medical weed here!!


5. Don't hate us because we're from Texas.

6. Our air and water got screwed big time when the shrub was in charge, and there's not much motivation to make the chemical plants stop it...after all, Tom DeLay can keep his job!

[Soloflecks]

20. Who cares what we want?

100% could've said they want medical marijuana, and it still wouldn't pass. The issues that WTP care about are ignored. If that wasn't true then we'd have low or no income tax, we'd have healthcare, we'd have jobs staying in the US, etc. It doesn't seem to be about what WTP want, it seems to be about what the corporate masters dictate to our so-called representatives.

[seaofcrisis]

21. How to get a Dem elected in 12 easy steps:

Actually just one step. Make ending the "war" on drugs a central party platform and waves and waves of people will flock to the democratic party. A very tiny minority of uptight soccer moms may leave the party, but I feel confident the gains would outweigh the losses.

It's so obvious. Do you know anyone who actually supports keeping marijuana illegal? I don't.

[malachi]

22. Not hard to understand. If I lived in Texas I'd want to be stoned all

the time, too.

[rainbow4321]

24. We do have a Pot party, you know...

Forgot the dems and repubs, I think we need to elect the pot party people next time.

http://texas.usmjparty.com/




:bounce:

[malachi]

26. Thanks for the link. I think I just found a new party to support since

the pink tutu wearing dem party will never get my vote or my $ again unless by some miracle they actually stand erect and fight, but we we know that'll never happen. Power to the Pot Party!

[rainbow4321]

27. And if you are NOT on drugs...

Local officials can still arrange for you to be arrested, charged, and jailed. Sweet of them, isn't it? BTW..the fake drugs were found to be pool cue chalk at one point.

http://tinyurl.com/4aalp


The Dallas City Council apologized to victims of the 2001 fake-drug scandal Wednesday, unanimously passing a resolution that expressed "deep remorse" for the false arrests.

The measure also offered apologies to the victims' families and the city's residents for breakdowns at the Police Department while calling on officials to continue shoring up procedures.

It erupted in late 2001 after more than two dozen people, mostly Hispanic immigrants, went to jail that summer and fall based on bogus drug evidence planted by corrupt police informants.

The resolution states that those false arrests – which have led to criminal charges against several former narcotics officers and the informants – should be "indelibly etched in our history," so that similar mistakes aren't repeated

[Not_Giving_Up]

31. If you THINK

it's drugs, even if it's not, you can be jailed. Back in the late 80's, there were people who sold peanuts in little packages made to look like crack. The people buying the peanuts thought that they were buying crack, which made them guilty...But the "dealers", who knew they were pushing peanuts, not crack, were not guilty of a thing. Go figure....Shouldn't they have been gotten on fraud or something? I can see it now..."Your honor, the defendant knowlingly passed peanuts off as crack and made tons of money from it..."

[dhinojosa]

32. Too bad those 75% were high when they voted.

They were probably watching TV, smoking dope, eating cheetoes.

"Hey, you wanna hear something funny? heheheheh. Let's.......oh man, this is great......Let's vote for Bush, man!"

"Dude, that dude's an idiot, hahaha"

"No, dude, don't you see? That's what's so cool about it"

"Ah, I get it. Well, dude, that's a rockin idea"

[GeorgeBushytail]

33. I am a medical marijuana user

I just moved from Seattle, where I was authorized by my neurologist to use it because of my epilepsy and Central Pain Syndrome. Now I live in Wisconsin, a blue (barely) state with no medical mj law, so I am a criminal again.

So my post-electio activism will be channeled through the WI med mj advocacy group Is My Medicine Legal Yet.

If you live in a state without a medical marijuana please support us any you can.

[Walt Starr]

34. This is a perfect slippery slope issue for the Democrats

But in order for Democrats to use this issue, they'd have to hang up their pink tutus because it would get fucking ugly.