The survey by the University of Houston found 67 percent of respondants way to legalize recreational marijuana for people 21 and older.
HOUSTON — A large majority of Texans support easing restrictions on both medical and recreational marijuana, according to a new survey from the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs.
It found 82 percent of Texans favor expanding the state’s medical marijuana program, 67 percent want to legalize recreational use by adults 21 and over and 81 percent want to decriminalize having a small amount by making it punishable with a ticket instead of jail time.
“Four-fifths is a very large number,” said Mark Jones, a senior research fellow and a co-author on the study. “It’s tough to get four-fifths of Texans to agree on anything, but they agree that the state should have medical marijuana and should have an implementation of the decriminalization of marijuana.”
Jones credits the changing mindset to a growing number of younger Texans and medical marijuana programs in three-quarters of other states.
Currently, the Compassionate Use Program run by Texas Department of Public Safety allows patients with a prescription access to products with no higher than 1% THC, the compound that makes users feel high, to treat…
