Pubdate: Tue, 23 Oct 2012
Source: Pine Bluff Commercial (AR)
Copyright: 2012 Stephens Media Group
Contact:  http://www.pbcommercial.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1562

POLL: OPPOSITION TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROPOSAL GROWING

Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK - A growing percentage of Arkansas voters oppose
legalizing marijuana for medical use in the state, results of a new
poll show.

In the Talk Business-Hendrix College poll, 54 percent of Arkansas
voters said they opposed Issue 5, the proposed Arkansas Medical
Marijuana Act that appears on the November general election ballot.

Thirty-eight percent said they supported the measure and 8 percent
were undecided.

In July, 47 percent of respondents to a survey on the same question
said they supported the measure and 46 percent said they were against
it.

In the latest poll, Talk Business-Hendrix College surveyed 868 likely
Arkansas voters by phone Thursday. The poll has a margin of error of
plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The pollsters said the poll numbers were fluid and that a major paid
media campaign recently started by the measure's supports could cause
a shift.

Still, Jerry Cox, a vocal critic of the measure, said the poll numbers
show people "realize the claim about medicine is nothing more than a
smoke screen," noting that the sponsoring group, Arkansans for

Compassionate Care, got nearly $250,000 of the $282,000 in
contributions it has received from the Marijuana Policy Project, a
Washington, D.C-based group that advocates legalizing marijuana.

"We can't compete with them dollar-for-dollar, so we're going to
continue to rely on everyday Arkansans to take our message out at the
local level. So far that strategy seems to be paying off," said Cox,

president of the Family Council Action Committee, one of several
groups in a Christian conservative coalition opposing the measure.

The Arkansas Sheriffs' Association, Arkansas Association of Chiefs of
Police and the Arkansas Pharmacy Association also have announced
opposition to the proposal.

Chris Kell, spokesman for Arkansans for Compassionate Care, said he
had not seen the poll but had received positive response to the
measure in his travels around the state.

"As I travel across the state, I have found absolutely no opposition
to it," Kell said. "Statewide, support has been huge. I just got
through voting. They were all talking about it and I heard absolutely
no opposition."

He said the group's media campaign would "get our message out to the
masses" in the final days of the election season.

Early voting for the Nov. 6 general election began Monday.
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MAP posted-by: Matt