

According to the poll, 58 percent of the 860 respondents said they either "strongly support (41 percent)" or "somewhat support (17 percent)" changing the law in Texas to regulate marijuana similarly to alcohol, licensing stores to sell the substance to adults age 21 and older. Of those in opposition, 14 percent "somewhat oppose" the full legalization of marijuana and 24 percent "strongly oppose" such a change.

Sixty-one percent of respondents said they would like to remove criminal penalties for those in possession of an ounce or less of marijuana and make it a civil rather than criminal offense, punishable by a fine of up to $100 with no jail time. Under the current law, a person in possession of a small amount of the drug faces up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.

"I would take this poll seriously, because it does generally track with Gallup and Pew polls nationwide," said Nathan Jones, a postdoctoral fellow in Drug Policy at Rice University's Baker Institute.

"This shows that a majority of Texans are in support of fully legalizing marijuana."

Jones attributes the poll results in part to Texans' libertarian attitudes on spending tax dollars to enforce the state's marijuana policy and the cost of incarcerating drug offenders. The state also loses money due to lost productivity, when a non-violent offender is released from prison and is unable to find a good job.

Instead of spending all that money on enforcing marijuana laws, "why not legalize it, regulate it, tax it and make money from it?" Jones said.

"We're seeing this swelling of support. Now it's just a matter of when legislators will catch up."

That may take longer in Texas than it does in states like Colorado, where voters have the ability to place an issue on the ballot through initiative and referendum. By this process, citizens can propose laws and amendments by gathering a certain number of signatures on a petition, placing initiatives on the ballot and calling for a vote of the general public.

Texans don't have that option and must wait for the state legislature to propose laws and amendments. Jones said there are Democrats and Republicans in Texas who support changing the law, but "those two wings don't come together in the legislature; they come together in a referendum." The legislature tends to act more conservatively when it comes to changing the status quo, Jones added.