cannabisnews.com: The Trouble with Marijuana and Legislators The Trouble with Marijuana and Legislators Posted by CN Staff on April 01, 2004 at 20:07:41 PT By Bruce Mirken, AlterNet Source: AlterNet For a long time many of us have puzzled over why overwhelming public support for legal access to medical marijuana has not translated into legislative action. A new Zogby poll conducted in Vermont and Rhode Island, released March 29, may have solved the mystery. Every time medical marijuana has been on a state or local ballot it has passed overwhelmingly – most recently by 83 percent to 17 percent in Burlington, Vermont this March 2. State and national polls consistently show support levels ranging from 60 percent up to 80 percent or higher. This support comes from virtually all segments of the electorate: Young and old, liberal, and conservative, rich and poor, Republican, Democrat or independent.Yet politicians remain, for the most part, scared to death of the issue. Efforts to pass medical marijuana bills through state legislatures have had surprisingly tough going, considering the overwhelming public support they enjoy. Successful efforts, such as the bill passed and signed into law in Maryland last year, have sometimes required painful compromises that limit the protection given to patients. On the national level, even liberal members of Congress representing states where the voters have passed medical marijuana laws have sometimes been afraid to openly oppose federal policies that criminalize cancer and AIDS patients who use medical marijuana. Why are they so afraid? Politicians usually fall all over themselves to jump on issues that have better than two-to-one public support. The new Zogby poll results may contain the answer. Asked if they support legal access to medical marijuana for seriously ill patients, the results from voters in both states were consistent with previous polling: 71 percent yes to 21 percent no in Vermont, and 69 percent yes to 26 percent no in Rhode Island. But the new poll added a question that has not often been asked: "Regardless of your own opinion, do you think the majority of people in [Vermont or Rhode Island] support making marijuana medically available, or do you think the majority opposes making marijuana medically available?" Here the results were very different: Vermont:Think majority supports 37.6 percentThink majority opposes: 37.1 percentNot sure: 25.3 percent Rhode Island:Think majority supports 26.5 percentThink majority opposes 55.9 percentNot sure 17.6 percent Voters support medical marijuana by a whopping margin, yet they think they're in the minority. Nothing in the polling explains the reasons for this, but it is reasonable to assume that the saturation prevalence of "drugs are bad/marijuana is dangerous" propaganda in the media (often parroted uncritically by mainstream news outlets) is a major reason. Support for protecting medical marijuana patients from arrest is a thoroughly mainstream position, but you wouldn't know it from most media coverage of the issue. It's a safe bet that legislators and their campaign staffs are under the same misapprehension as voters. They think that supporting medical marijuana is a radical move that will get them in trouble with their constituents. It's not, and it won't. But our elected representatives won't know that unless we teach them. Bruce Mirken is communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, based in Washington, D.C. Source: AlterNet (US)Author: Bruce Mirken, AlterNetPublished: April 1, 2004Copyright: 2004 Independent Media InstituteContact: letters alternet.org Website: http://www.alternet.org/DL: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18305Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #4 posted by FoM on April 06, 2004 at 21:27:47 PT Related News Article from WCAX - TV The Problem with Studying Medical Marijuana Burlington, Vermont - April 6, 2004California is the only state to legalize the use of marijuana as medicine. Recently the state set up a fund to pay for research to find out if pot is effective in relieving pain. University of Vermont researcher Alan Budney is known nationally for his work on marijuana dependency. He is on California's study review board. "It's very hard to get it done," says Budney. "Researchers have quite the challenge."Marijuana's addictive quality can harm patients who have never used pot before. Yet researchers need subjects who are not regular pot smokers. It's a problem for studies. "So you have got to screen in people who have used, but not used too much. They have to have just the right condition if you try to study specific effects in specific cancers. The numbers become smaller and smaller," says Budney.Last week, Vermont lawmakers voted to allow doctors to study medical marijuana. To end the controversy, marijuana experts say the substance needs to stand the same tests as any other medication. But that won't come easily."There's lots of preliminary data, lab data, that some of the molecules in cannabis may be effective for a number of conditions. But really getting a handle on studying it, and doing studies we need to do find out if it works, it's gonna take a while," says Budney.While Vermont lawmakers gave approval for the study of marijuana, medical researchers really only need federal approval from the National Institutes of Health. And that approval is only half the battle-- researchers also need money.Sera Congi - Channel 3 Newshttp://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=1767642&nav=4QcSM6c4 [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by FoM on April 02, 2004 at 20:34:34 PT military officer guy Nice seeing you! [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by military officer guy on April 02, 2004 at 20:22:41 PT vote libertarian vote libertarian, that's all i'm going to say... let's end this war on drugs... gary nolan is the current libertarian front runner. but that will be determined officially in atlanta (27-31 May)at the libertarian national convention... http://www.garynolan.com http://www.lp.org the libertarian party, our only hope for freedom in america... we will win this war... [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on April 01, 2004 at 21:52:02 PT Nobody wants us in this election Maybe we should just all vote for Nader.I see pretty much -- disdain and contempt from the Democrats.Why vote for people who hate you so much, they'd rather give a rapist a college loan than give one to you?When they exist on that moral level, who cares what else they want from the world. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment