Marijuana Policy Project

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Registered voters in Sen. Vincent L. Leibell's (R) district (Putnam and parts of Westchester and Dutchess 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, 77 percent of the 500 randomly selected voters in Leibell's district interviewed by phone said they support patients' right to grow and use limited amounts of marijuana if their doctor recommends it, including 67 percent of Republicans and 83 percent of Democrats. Asked if they would be more or less likely to vote for Leibell if he supported medical marijuana legislation, 48 percent said they would be more likely, and only 14 percent said they would be less likely. Twenty percent of respondents said they knew somebody who had used medical marijuana.

Dominick DiFabio, a psychiatrist from Cortlandt Manor, urged Leibell to pay attention to what his constituents are saying. "It's clear that there's strong support in this district for giving legal protection to patients who need medical marijuana," said Dr. DiFabio, who works with children in foster care and who lost his wife Susan to ovarian cancer in 2007. "The nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite and weight loss my wife went through during chemotherapy were terrible, and Marinol, the THC pill, was no help at all. She could have had relief of these side effects, a better quality of life during treatment and perhaps been able to stay on treatment for a longer period of time if medical marijuana was available. In her memory, I want to make sure that suffering patients and their physicians have every possible tool available to help them, without fear of arrest. I'm appealing to Sen. Leibell to listen to his constituents and do what's right."

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 40" to see polling data for Leibell's district.