Marijuana Legalization Is Near At Hand

Texas gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman has come out in favor of legalization. He doesn't poll very high, only 16 to 19%, but this declaration doesn't seem to have helped or hurt his poll numbers at this point. It could be that most people don't know, but that will change over the next few weeks.

In order for pot to be legalized, politicians have to present bills proposing legalization. To do that, they have to believe that doing so will either be neutral or positive to their polling numbers.

If Kinky Friedman can prove that this is the case, then we'll start to see some action on this. Even if he isn't elected, the effect of his support for legalization will not go unnoticed by the people who plan campaigns and make policy platforms.

Kinky may not be elected, he didn't do well in the debate tonight. On the other hand nobody demonized him for his legalization position. There was one question about it, one of the panelists asked if he would appoint known drug users to his staff in light of his support of legalization.

There will be four more weeks of campaigning, surely the subject will come up, and pollsters will get a real chance to see how the electorate feels about it. After that I think we'll see some positive movement on it in the next few years.