Pubdate: Mon, 17 Feb 2014
Source: Republican & Herald (PA)
Copyright: 2014 Pottsville Republican, Inc
Contact:  http://republicanherald.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1047
Author: Donna Brazile, United Feature Syndicate

DEEP SOUTH GOING TO POT

It seems marijuana - at least for medical use - is sweeping the 
nation. More than 20 states and the District of Columbia have either 
legalized medical marijuana or decriminalized its possession, and in 
two states, Colorado and Washington, voters legalized its 
recreational use. The Denver Post even appointed a marijuana editor.

The Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, 
D.C., found in September that, "For the first time in more than four 
decades of polling ... a majority (52 percent) of Americans favor 
legalizing the use of marijuana." In June, they found that nearly 
half of Americans had smoked marijuana, up from 40 percent three 
years ago - and 12 percent had done so recently.

Half of baby boomers now favor legalization. And 72 percent of 
Americans say it isn't worth the federal government's time and money 
to enforce federal laws against marijuana. Agreement on this last 
point breaches even the partisan divide. Rather, the division is 
between conservatives in both parties on one side, and moderates and 
liberals on the other.

But what about the Bible Belt - the Deep South? In 2010, CNBC found 
that "in most states legalization is not even on the horizon," while 
some were "vehemently opposed." Florida and Louisiana were the two 
most "cannabis non-gratis" states. Florida has the toughest 
anti-marijuana laws - a $6,000 fine and five years in the slammer for 
possessing one ounce. CNBC found its marijuana laws were only 
"getting tougher."

In Louisiana (my home state), I wasn't surprised that the editor of 
La Politics, Joe Maginnis, observed that Louisiana "is not a culture 
of where marijuana is accepted." True dat. Harsher penalties were 
being introduced in 2010 there, too.

Today, the reverse is true. The Florida Supreme Court approved the 
language for a constitutional amendment to legalize medical marijuana 
three days before citizens gathered enough signatures to place it on 
the November ballot. And NORML, a group working to reform marijuana 
laws, reports an American Civil Liberties Union poll found that 53 
percent of Louisianans favor legalizing recreational marijuana. 
Support for legalizing marijuana "is blooming in the South," it said.

Indeed it is. In Kentucky (where citizens are so politically 
conservative that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is 
considered by some to be too liberal), a recent poll found 52 percent 
favor medical marijuana, while only 37 percent opposed it. (The 
remainder, 12 percent, were "not sure.")

Last week, Kentucky state Sen. Julie Denton, a Republican, filed a 
bill that would permit the use of cannabidiol, marijuana in 
controlled oral doses, which reduces seizures in children.

In Alabama, state Rep. Mike Ball backs a bill to permit cannabis oil. 
"The political fear is shifting from what will happen if we pass it, 
to what might happen if we don't," Ball told the Associated Press. 
CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, made a public 
apology for an article he wrote for Time magazine in 2009, opposing 
legalizing pot. "I didn't look hard enough," he said, "until now."

Gupta now finds compelling medical evidence that marijuana does have 
medical uses.

"We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years 
in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that," Gupta 
wrote on the CNN Health website. Voters appear to be coming to the 
same conclusion. More than one-third of the states have initiatives 
on marijuana on this fall's ballots. Among those states considering 
marijuana legislation are Southern states like Mississippi, Kentucky, 
Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom