Majority of Kentuckians Support Medical Marijuana

That would be all of us now denied pain relief of because of prescription drug hysteria. Plus our friends, families and coworkers, and everyone with a fucking grain of sense or iota of compassion.

As a bonus, medical marijuana would also drastically reduce the heroin addiction that arises in response to deny narcotic pain killers to people in chronic pain.

Janet Patton at the Herald:

A slim majority of Kentucky voters is ready to legalize medical marijuana, according to a Herald-Leader/WKYT Bluegrass Poll. The survey asked 1,082 registered voters whether they favored or opposed allowing the use of medical marijuana in Kentucky; 52 percent were in favor, 37 percent were opposed and 12 percent were not sure.

Support for medical marijuana was highest in the 18-34 age range, at 60 percent, and lowest among voters 65 and older, at 35 percent. Democrats were more likely to say they favored allowing medical marijuana than Republicans, with 58 percent of Democrats and 43 percent of Republicans supporting legalization of marijuana for medical purposes.

Support was slightly higher in the more urban areas of the state than in rural Western and Eastern Kentucky.

The survey was conducted Jan. 30 to Feb. 3 by SurveyUSA and in partnership with The Courier-Journal and WHAS-TV in Louisville. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

At least 20 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws allowing some use of marijuana to treat medical conditions, and voters in Colorado and Washington have legalized recreational marijuana.

The issue remains controversial in more socially conservative states, such as Kentucky, where law enforcement officials have tried for decades to eradicate marijuana cultivation.

But a shift in the public's thinking has some lawmakers in Kentucky's General Assembly reconsidering that stance.

And the real reason cops opposed loosening the draconion laws criminalizing marijuana is because those laws allows cops to confiscate the property of anyone so much as suspected of possessing marijuana, to the tune of millions of dollars per year.

Of course it's unconstitutional. But it gets legislators off the budget hook for actually funding decent law enforcement.