Poll: 53 Percent of West Virginians Support Medical Marijuana, 63 Percent Think It's Safer Than Oxycontin

A new poll conducted by Public Policy Polling and released by the Marijuana Policy Project finds that 53 percent of West Virginians support legalizing medical marijuana for "seriously and terminally ill patients" who have a doctor's recommendation. The poll also finds that 63 percent of West Virginians think marijuana is a "safer treatment for debilitating pain" than Oxycontin, abuse of which has been rampant in Appalachia for over a decade. 

MPP's announcement of the poll results included the news that West Virginia state Rep. Mike Manypenny will introduce medical marijuana legislation in 2013. 

Considering how hard the state's been hit by prescription drug abuse, majority support for legalizing any drug is a big deal. But the real surprise is in the crosstabs: 

When it comes to decriminalization of recreational pot, legalization of medical pot, and the drug's safety compared to Oxy, millennials and baby boomers are practically on the same page. When the 65+ crowd ages off the planet, will there be any generation-wide resistance to pot? 

Comments

[Aresen]

I'll bet that a sizeable percentage of the 63% think "Oxycontin" is some new street drug.

[SIV]

In WV? It is the official state drug.

[John]

I thought that was Meth.

[SIV]

You're thinking of Montana.

[BakedPenguin]

Missourah.

[SIV]

The most striking aspect of those responses is how closely the views of 50-to-64-year-olds align with 18-to-34-year-olds.

Shouldn't come as much of a surprise'
50-53 would be the age with the highest, most frequent and heaviest reported marijuana use back in the late 1970s when they were in HS. 64 would have been in their late teens "back in the hippie days".

[John]

Who are the 37% who think it is not safer than Oxycontin? Oxycontin is just pharmaceutical grade heroin. Since when is heroin safer than pot?

[Hyperion]

The tea totaling evangelicals, that's who. Have you never been to West Vaginer?

[Zeb]

It's a pill your doctor gives you. It must be better.

A lot of people don't really know what different drugs are and just do what the doctor tells them to do, I think. The fact that oxycodone is an opioid that does more or less the same thing as heroin is not on their radar. And even knowing that is probably suspicious and means you are a drug seeker.

[SugarFree]

Yup. Never display any knowledge about pain drugs. Ever. I have a hyper-sensitivity to oxycodone (discovered after wisdom teeth surgery--that was bloody and unpleasant) and I've learned never to tell them upfront.

I hope every DEA agent experiences lifelong crippling pain and get nothing. Evil fuckers.

[Episiarch]

Who gives a fuck what the public thinks? What is this, a democracy?

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's a representative republic, dummy. You elect people to represent you to society since you're too ill-informed to know what's good for you.

[Hyperion]

It's now a Freeshittery.

In the new FOA (Free Shittery of Amurika), everyone is divided into 3 classes.

1. Freeshitters. The job of the freeshitters is to vote into office those who hand out free shit.

2. Freeshittery Elites. The job of the Freeshittery elite is to rob class 3 of money to pay for free shit and keep what is left over for themselves.

2. Working serfs. The job of the working serfs is to provide the money for the Freeshittery elites to hand out the free shit to the Freeshitters.

That's the whole shitty deal.

[Tim]

I executive order you to shut the fuck up!

[Episiarch]

(orders drone strike on Tim)

BOOM

[John]

(Fist of Etiquette dies in the blast) Collateral damage.

[Episiarch]

(shrugs, just like the President)

[John]

It was a legal kill.

[Episiarch]

(has press conference, surrounded by children)

[Fist of Etiquette]

[as ghost inhabiting teleprompter, to children]
AVENGE ME, BOYS! AVEEEEEEEEEEEENGE ME!

[Karl Hungus]

The poll also finds that 63 percent of West Virginians think marijuana is a "safer treatment for debilitating pain" than Oxycontin.

. . . which means the remaining 37 percent of West Virginians are idiots.

[SIV]

Oxy is more effective

[John]

I am sure it is. It also is physically addictive as hell and can if taken in a large enough dose kill you. Pot in contrast is neither of those things.

If I have enough pain, I will take my chances with Oxy. But I really don't see why pot couldn't be a safer alternative for less severe pain.

[Zeb]

When it comes to pain, which is impossible to measure or quantify, people should do what works for them. Opioids are certainly valuable drugs for pain management and pot is no replacement for them, but more options is a good thing. Might as well try a relatively safe and less addictive drug first.

[SIV]

Most people who develop an "addiction" to prescription pain meds do not meet the classic criteria of physical dependence. Those "Vicodin addicts" would all be dead from tylenol poisoning.

[Zeb]

I thought this was about Oxycontin, not Vicodin.

[SIV]

I'm speaking generally about prescription narcotic analgesics.

[John]

Do they not go through withdrawal like junkies do? Don't know, just asking. I always assumed getting hooked on those things was just like getting hooked on heroin. But is that not true?

[SugarFree]

Oxycontin is oxycodone (with no filler like acetaminophen) in a time-release format. If you crush it, 12 or 24 hours worth will hit you all at once if taken orally or snorted.

It has a potential to be addicting, but it is not as powerful as heroin or morphine.

[John]

The few times I have had access to actual good pain pills because of various injuries, I didn't find them physically addictive at all. But they were psychologically addictive as hell. They were literally an instant good mood. I could totally function on them. I just felt better and more emotionally happy even keeled. Taking a pill that does that is very addictive indeed.

[SIV]

Pure oxy is more powerful than pure morphine when administered orally.
You can't snort morphine.

[SugarFree]

You can't snort morphine.

Maybe you can't, buster.

[SIV]

I should say you can't absorb it through nasal membranes. If you swallow enough morphine-laden post-nasal drip it will be just like taking it orally.

[SIV]

Some do. It just isn't as easy as the drug treatment industry makes it out to be. You need to use the shit 24/7 and increase the dose to develop physical dependency.Most patients getting their drugs therapeutically don't take enough.

[Gladstone]

So is Nick going to write an article saying that the desire to ban drugs is understandable and that the drug legalizers are a bunch of paranoid nutjobs?

[StackOfCoins]

"When the 65+ crowd ages off the planet..."

Seriously. Could that generation just fucking die already? It's our rock now.

[Tablet pc]

I think it's Safer Than Oxycontin

[sohbet]

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[kombi servisi]

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[kombi servisi]

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[kombi servisi]

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[kombi servisi]

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[kombi servisi]

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over and join the high conversations! We're quite new, but VERY welcoming.

[cinsel chat]

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[klima servisi]

Looking at that picture, am I the only one who doesn't like foregrips on rifles?