Marijuana Policy Project

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Registered voters in Sen. John J. Bonacic's (R) district (Delaware, Sullivan and parts of Ulster and Orange counties) overwhelmingly support legislation that would protect seriously ill patients who use medical marijuana with their doctor's recommendation from arrest, according to a recent Mason-Dixon poll. Local patients and medical professionals responded to the results by urging the state Senate to swiftly enact the legislation, which has the support of organizations representing state nurses, medical schools and physicians.

According to the poll conducted June 8 to 10, 75 percent of the 500 randomly selected voters in Bonacic's district interviewed by phone said they support patients' right to grow and use limited amounts of marijuana if their doctor recommends it, including 65 percent of Republicans and 83 percent of Democrats. Asked if they would be more or less likely to vote for Bonacic if he supported medical marijuana legislation, 47 percent said they would be more likely, and only 14 percent said they would be less likely. Twenty-five percent of respondents said they knew somebody who had used medical marijuana.

Leba London, a registered nurse from Bethel, urged Bonacic to pay attention to his constituents. "I've experienced the relief medical marijuana can provide firsthand," said London, who suffers from reflex sympathetic dystrophy and has had 18 surgeries on her knee and shoulders. "It's clear that the people of this district support protecting patients like me who need medical marijuana, and I just hope Senator Bonacic will listen to the people who elected him."

"As a medical doctor and as a patient battling Crohn's disease and ankylosing spondylitis, I know scientifically and from personal experience that medical marijuana can safely and effectively provide relief when nothing else can," said Dr. Kevin Smith, a Saugerties psychiatrist who once experienced relief with medical marijuana while visiting Amsterdam, but refuses to break the law in New York by using the drug here. "If Senator Bonacic studies the recent poll results, he'll see that his constituents also understand medical marijuana's value and that they expect him to pass this medical marijuana law now, so that no seriously ill New Yorker suffers needlessly any longer."

Commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project, the poll has a plus-or-minus 4.5 percent margin of error. The entire poll results can be viewed online at www.mpp.org/nypolls2009. Click on "State Senate District 42" to see polling data for Bonacic's district.