Drug War Issues
Politics & Advocacy
South Dakota Measure 13, the prairie state's highly restrictive medical marijuana initiative, was trailing badly in a Sioux Falls Argus-Leader/KELO-TV poll released Friday. Only 32% of likely voters polled said they supported the measure, while 62% said they opposed it.
The Argus-Leader/KELO-TV poll is the second in a week to show the measure trailing. A Nielsen Brothers poll released last Monday had it losing 53% to 33%.
If the polls are anywhere near accurate, it would be a devastating step backward for the state's medical marijuana movement. South Dakota already holds the dubious distinction of being the only state where voters rejected medical marijuana, but in 2006, it lost narrowly with 48% of the vote.
While the Nielsen Brothers poll provided no further breakdown of support and opposition, the Argus-Leader/KELO-TV poll did. Opposition to Measure 13 was strong with both men (61%) and women (63%), as well as among independents (57%) and Republicans (73%).
Only among Democrats were there high levels of support (46%), and even among that group, the initiative couldn't crack 50%.
In an analysis accompanying the poll results, the Argus-Leader said, "In the absence of definitive scientific evidence that marijuana has valuable medical properties, South Dakota voters seem swayed by the arguments opponents of ballot Initiative 13 make." It cited arguments from law enforcement and from the head of the South Dakota Medical Association as resonating well with voters.
Emmit Reistroffer, who heads the South Dakotan Coalition for Compassion, told the Argus-Leader he was surprised by the poll results. He said in his travels across the state, the greatest concern raised was that a retail network for marijuana sales might emerge. The initiative does not contain provisions allowing for dispensaries.
"South Dakota wants a conservative approach" to medical marijuana use, he said. "We want to teach voters how restrictive our measure is. Once they come to an understanding of that, I see where we have gained a lot of support."
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
"In the absence of definitive scientific evidence
that cannabis has valuable medical properties...". What a pile! There's plenty of studies and the only reason there aren't many more is because governments refund to fund the research, and of course big pharma would be cutting it's own throat if it helped to legitimize weed. Nice little scam they pulled, suppressing research and then claiming there's not enough evidence! Shameless pieces of shit masquerading as liberty loving, compassionate Americans.
"Moderate' alcohol supremacist bigots may be rejoining the hard core cannabis haters and turning away from medicinal cannabis because they realize allowing its use is proving that society has nothing to fear from cannabis. But the bigots and fascists and special interests profiting from prohibition have plenty to lose and they're fighting back with every dirty trick they can.
help legalize smoking it will
help legalize smoking it will only help our society in a number of ways because people in pain will not hurt so much and its just a plant that grows from nature! If you want to ban something ban the poison that is know as alcohol.
Less restrictive measures might be more popular
The idea that restrictive measures are the pathway to success needs to be dumped.
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