The call to legalize pot steadily emanates from the decaying 74-year-old home in Montrose.

A gray-haired, sharp-voiced Dean Becker settles in behind a microphone there each Sunday night at the studios of KPFT public radio to spread his mantra: End the Drug War.

Becker and those of a like mind about legalizing marijuana say they are getting some traction nowadays.

With recreational use of pot now legal in Colorado and Washington - and public opinion polls showing growing nationwide support for such measures - speculation is rampant that even in law-and-order Texas, it is not a question of if, but when, legalization will happen.

"Those who get on the right side of this will be seen as heroes," contends Becker, who has interviewed everyone from pot activist Willie Nelson to Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland. "Those who don't will be seen as goats."

Political consultant Bill Miller said it is just a matter of time but cautions Texas is not in a hurry.

"Texas will probably be one of the last frontiers, because right now we are just a super conservative state," Miller said. "We are red, red."

If legislation is filed in the next session, it probably won't go anywhere, he said.

Not even fellow large state California, with a reputation for being far more liberal, has been able to get it done. But some blocks are falling into place here.

Uniting investors

What is being billed as the "First Marijuana Investment Conference" started Sunday and wraps up Monday at the Westin Houston hotel in Memorial City. Tickets for the final day are $1,000 at the door.

The goal is to unite wealthy potential investors with a host of marijuana-related companies doing legal business in various parts of the United States, organizers say.

"This is not a push to necessarily change the views in Texas," said Douglas Leighton whose company, Dutchess Capital, is underwriting the event. "These are companies based outside looking for investor dollars."

The businesses are involved in everything from vaporizers to hydroponics to a cannabis delivery service and social-media platform. Some of them delve into not just the medical use of marijuana but legal recreational use by adults, Leighton said.

Miller, the political consultant, said framing discussion about pot in business terms would draw more support from the Legislature than making it a debate over the right to get high.

"Nothing gets the attention of the Legislature faster than business opportunities," he said. "That is how you get the ball rolling."

Texas has to take a slower road to marijuana legalization than Colorado or Washington, where voters were able to force a referendum merely by gathering enough signatures via a citizen initiative. The same was true for Oregon and Alaska, where the matter was forced on to November ballots.

In Texas, only the Legislature can make such a decision.

Rep. Harold Dutton Jr., a Houston Democrat, has repeatedly introduced legislation that would knock possession of an ounce or less of marijuana down to the status of a traffic ticket and require an education course.

Still, Dutton said he is not sure he'd be ready to support the level of legalization in Colorado.

"From where we are to where that is is a long jump," he said. "The Legislature rarely makes those kind of leaps."

Public opinion

William Martin, director of the drug program at Rice University's Baker Institute on Public Policy, said public opinion is tipping in favor of legalization.

"In keeping with national sentiment, slightly over half of Texans favor legalizing cannabis for recreational purposes and approximately two-thirds believe it should be legal for medicinal purposes," he said, citing multiple polls. "Still, a century of anti-pot propaganda poses a stiff challenge to legalization for either purpose."

Pro-pot people elsewhere are looking at Texas.

Johnny Green, an Oregon activist who runs theweedblog.com, said among the most common inquiries he gets are about the prospects for Texas legalizing marijuana.

"It's a logical question, considering how many people get arrested for marijuana in Texas, and how harsh their marijuana laws are," he writes.

He advises followers who want change to either pressure the Legislature or wait for federal reform.

Crackdown on drugs

The battlefield over legalization is far larger in Texas than other states not just because of the number of people who live here but the massive role the state has played in cracking down on illegal drug trafficking and border security.

The Drug Enforcement Administration's Houston Division reports that 240,816 pounds of marijuana were seized last year in its territory, which stretches from here to the South Texas-Mexico border and includes San Antonio and Austin.

Javier Pena, who recently retired as the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Houston Division, has said he does not support legalization.

"We see the effects it has on people. I'm against legalization," he said. "Some states aren't, and that is a political fight. Will Texas ever? I hope not."

Becker, the 65-year-old Houston radio show host, said the movement to legalize marijuana has turned such a big corner that he'll see it in Texas within his lifetime. He envisions the day he smokes a joint in front of the Harris County Courthouse.

"It is just on the horizon," Becker said. "Everybody knows it."