Pubdate: Tue, 24 Nov 2015
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR)
Copyright: 2015 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
Contact: http://www2.arkansasonline.com/contact/voicesform/
Website: http://www2.arkansasonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/25
Note: Accepts letters to the editor from Arkansas residents only
Page: 6B

A DISTURBING POLL

Medical Marijuana's Support Grows

WHAT A shocking poll. And it has nothing at all to do with The 
Donald, Dr. Carson, or any of the other presidential hopefuls 
crowding your television sets.

The political science types at the University of Arkansas have come 
out with their annual Arkansas Poll, or what they call The Arkansas 
Poll, that definite article being all the rage these days. Folks 
working on the poll interviewed 800 Arkies back in October, and found 
some interesting things. Some were expected: People in Arkansas like 
Asa!, the president not-so-much, and oppose same-sex marriage.

For the You're Kidding part, however, you had to see the numbers for 
medical marijuana.

Back in 2012, Arkansas voters turned down a ballot proposal to allow 
for the use of medical marijuana in the state. But only barely. The 
proposal failed with 49 percent of the vote for, 51 agin.

That made a lot of folks nervous. With a vote like that, the idea of 
medical marijuana wasn't killed in Arkansas, only just barely 
wounded. And its supporters vowed to be back. And they are. (They're 
trying to get it on the ballot again, as they promised.)

Now we find that The Arkansas Poll says 68 percent-sixty-eight 
percent-of respondents say, sure, why not medical marijuana?

Well, here's why not, for starters: It's not just a slippery slope, 
but a greased one. Colorado passed a medical marijuana law back in 
2000. And only a few years later passed a law allowing for 
recreational use. Now it's smoke 'em if you got 'em in Colorado. Talk 
about your Rocky Mountain High. Laws can have gateways, too.

Nobody has explained how Aunt Jenny is going to keep Little Suzy out 
of her medicine cabinet, either. In 2013, dispatches out of Colorado 
said the 74 percent (that's even more than 68 percent) of teens being 
treated for substance abuse in Denver had admitted to using somebody 
else's medical marijuana at some point. A study said, in the best 
scientese: "Medical marijuana use among adolescent patients in 
substance abuse treatment is very common, implying substantial 
diversion from registered users."

Translation: The kids are getting into the stash.

Now 68 percent of Arkies say medical marijuana is fine? Are they 
reading the papers?

The poll made us a little light-headed, and it wasn't a contact high. 
We called the always helpful Dr. Janine Parry, the poll's 
director/poli-sci professor/ big wheel at the University of Arkansas. 
She gave us good news and not so good news.

First, the good: She notes that poll results gather feelings of folks 
in an abstract way. When somebody tells a pollster that, sure, 
doobies aren't so bad, they might not exactly vote that way when it 
comes down to it on Election Day.

The not so good: She notes that a lot of states are legalizing 
medical marijuana, and Arkansas might just go along with the crowd. 
Call it peer pressure.

Here's hoping not. If everybody else jumped off a bridge ...
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom