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Massachusetts Medical Marijuana Initiative Polling Very Well

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #748)
Politics & Advocacy

It looks like Massachusetts is set to become a new medical marijuana state. According to a new Public Policy Polling survey, the medical marijuana initiative there has the support of 58% of likely voters, while only 27% say they plan to vote against it.

The initiative, which will appear on the November ballot as Question 3, would allow people suffering from a debilitating medical condition to use medical marijuana upon the recommendation of a doctor with whom they have a bona fide relationship. Patients could possess up to a 60-day supply -- what constitutes that supply will be determined by the Department of Health. The initiative would also set up a system of nonprofit medical marijuana cultivation and distribution centers.

The initiative is being championed by the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Committee for Compassionate Medicine, and the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance.

The PPP survey found that Question 3 is winning broad support among Democrats (67%) and independents (55%), but also surprisingly high support (46%) among Republicans. Following the pattern in other states, support was stronger among men (61%) than women (55%) and stronger among people describing themselves as very liberal (77%), liberal (67%), and moderate (60%), than among those describing themselves as conservative (41%) or very conservative (37%).

Even if all the undecided voters (15%) joined those saying they will vote no, the measure would still win by 16 percentage points. Some drop-off in support is to be expected as election day nears and the opposition mobilizes, but it looks very likely that there will be at least 18 states to approve medical marijuana as of November.

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

Nice to see a "grassroots" initiative that hasn't been tainted by outside interests. Way to go Massachusetts. Good to know that you'll be having state sanctioned cooperatives and not the corporate cannabis paradigm we got stuck with here in Colorado.

Peace, Pot, Politics,

Wayward Bill Chengelis

Chairman, US Marijuana Party

Sun, 08/26/2012 - 2:46pm Permalink
Paul Pot (not verified)

 

There is still time to register to vote for marijuana law reform in 
 
Colorado, 
 
Oregon, 
 
Washington, 
 
Arkansas, 
 
Montana, 
 
Massachusetts, 
 
North Dakota, 
 
Springfield MO, 
 
Detroit MI. 
 
War is Over! 
 
2012! 
Mon, 08/27/2012 - 1:48pm Permalink

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