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50% of Americans Favor Legalizing Pot
To be blunt,
that number has never been, uh, higher:
PRINCETON, NJ — A record-high 50% of Americans now say the use of marijuana should be made legal, up from 46% last year. Forty-six percent say marijuana use should remain illegal.
When Gallup first asked about legalizing marijuana, in 1969, 12% of Americans favored it, while 84% were opposed. Support remained in the mid-20s in Gallup measures from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, but has crept up since, passing 30% in 2000 and 40% in 2009 before reaching the 50% level in this year’s Oct. 6-9 annual Crime survey.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition executive director Neill Franklin, a retired Baltimore narcotics cop, comments:
The Obama administration’s escalation of the ‘war on drugs’ and its attacks on state medical marijuana laws are only giving more and more Americans the opportunity to realize just how ridiculous and harmful our prohibition-based drug laws are. These numbers from Gallup, as well as the California Medical Association’s recent endorsement of marijuana legalization, show that momentum is on the side of reformers, so it’s no wonder the drug warriors are getting scared and ramping up their attacks. People are clearly waking up to the fact that we can no longer afford the fiscal and human costs of this failed ‘war on drugs.’ Savvy politicians would do well to take heed.
Business Insider’s Henry Blodget:
And why not legalize it?
Legalizing pot will create a new multi-billion dollar (legal) industry and create tens of thousands of (legal) jobs.
Stephen Smith, reflecting on Ken Burns’ Prohibition:
As with alcohol in the 1920s, when Prohibition was foisted on cities by small towns, today’s anti-drug policies are most popular among white suburban and rural conservatives. Urban voters, who bear the brunt of the damage of America’s misguided drug policies, are more liberal and likely to favor reforms like marijuana legalization and needle exchanges, but just like their predecessors who opposed Prohibition, they are forced to acquiesce to the federal war on drugs.
Race as a factor, then:
Prohibition was a tool that the white South could use to keep down the black population. In fact, they used Prohibition really to keep liquor away from black people but not from white people.
And now:
More people are arrested in New York City on charges of possessing small amounts of marijuana than on any other crime on the books. Nearly all are black or Latino males under the age of 25, most with no previous convictions. Many have never been arrested before.
19 Responses to “50% of Americans Favor Legalizing Pot”
You know I really don’t care one way or the other because I don’t smoke.
Joe,
Thanks for the article and the links to the polls.
I firmly believe that cannabis will one day be made legal. Enforcement of cannabis laws have been a complete failure, are costing taxpayers billions of dollars a year, and are filling our prisons with nonviolent offenders.
One day, Americans will look back at people who supported cannabis prohibiton and view them in much the same way that we now view those who supported alcohol prohibition during the 1920′s and 1930′s. And if these poll numbers are correct, then 46% of us will have to look our grandchildren in the eyes and explain to them why we supported the government’s arrest and prosecution of peaceful people who merely wanted to smoke cannabis.
Big pharma owns our politicians…it will be a long time before we see it legalized.
Not many politicians are willing to risk their election chances on something with no electoral payoff.
ShannonLee…I agree with Nick. There is no differnce is what is happening now and what we went though with alcohol prohibition. Did you happen to see Burn’s PBS series on the Prohibition years?
Demand drove the mob into the picture because of the vast profits to be made. Since there was no government regulation, bad batches were killing people; if you were old enough to pay, someone would hand you a bottle, and there was no tax revenue being garnered.
Why do we continually turn our back on history for solutions to current problems?
Make it legal, regulate it, and watch the drug cartels and the border wars in Mexico disappear.
Mal-
I thought you were against government regulation?
It’s interesting to look at the breakdown of poll results based on party. It is clear that left leaning folks are more libertarian in this regard than are those on the right. I have no doubt this is an artifact of the culture wars, but it also shows how fickle and inconsistent the right is when it comes to libertarian thought.
I’m curious about the large spike in 1977 and the smaller one in 2001. I wonder what was going on there? In any case, it’s long past time to end the barbaric practice of throwing people in the slammer for using marijuana.
[...] 50% of Americans Favor Legalizing Pot (themoderatevoice.com) [...]
Mal, I am all for legalization…it would greatly decrease my risk of going to jail.
I am just saying…Lobbyist money talks and legalizing weed has no voter payoff. In a strictly political equation, fighting for legalization makes no sense.
and lets face it… Dems had the WH and both houses for 2 years. They could have easily legalized it.
What are you, Allen? A selective reader? Not too good at retaining?
The fact weed is still illegal is a freaking joke to me. EVERYONE has either smoked it or been around those who have, its no big deal. The fact we spend time and money putting people in jail for it is absurd. This is separate from the general “War on Drugs” which has failed miserably by any definition of success. The fact our leadership and the general public see no need to change tactics after 30 years of treading water is an ongoing mystery to me.
@Slamfu: The only point on which we agree is that the government and leadership need to take a different tack at tackling the War on Drugs.
That being said, I think it horrifically sad that there is even a single person in the US who wants marihuana legalized. It should remain a Schedule A Narcotic, and we should punish it equivalent to cocaine or heroin use.
“I think it horrifically sad that there is even a single person in the US who wants marihuana legalized. It should remain a Schedule A Narcotic, and we should punish it equivalent to cocaine or heroin use.” PJBF
Seriously??? You must be joking (or trolling). I have to assume you are an active advocate for the criminalization of tobacco and alcohol, and perhaps fatty food and sugar as well.
“I think it horrifically sad that there is even a single person in the US who wants marihuana legalized. It should remain a Schedule A Narcotic, and we should punish it equivalent to cocaine or heroin use.” PJBF
LOL More people die each year from legal and prescription drugs. Never heard of Fetal Pot
AlcoholSyndrome or cirrhosis due to THC.PJBFan…what is the difference in problems encountered when 18th Amendment was enacted and what we are experiencing now with pot being illegal? I like hearing other perspectives. Perhaps you can change my mind on the subject.
As a proud retired safety member from the “Greater Bay Area” all I’m prepared to do is quote Janis Joplin on the Dick Cavett Show When asked why she was going to her 10 year High School Reunion Janis said:
Edit to add: To this day “live music” is illegal in Scotts Valley (80 miles south of Filmore West) because of Janis Joplin!
A lot of the dichotomy between “Left and Right” on this issue is a direct outcome of the ‘culture wars’ of the sixties, seventies, and eighties. another is that there is no “Right wing culture” in the same fashion as the Left in America-get fifty Republicans in a room, and without a moderator there’ll be people coming real close to blows in minutes. The reason?
There are the “Cultural Conservatives” who don’t really know what culture they’re advocating, but think it looks like Ozzy and Harriet Go To Church.
There are “Law and Order” Conservatives who, like their kin on the Left, think “There Oughta Be a LAW” governing everything, with draconian punishments and an erosion of the concept of Habeas Corpus.
There are “Gun Nut” conservatives, who generally trend Libertarian or constitutionalist, who’re only on the right, because the Left has totally embraced the “Gun Control” movement.
There are the Church Conservatives-the so-called “Krischun Majoritty” who think they’re fighting satan at the ballot box, hate gay people because “The Bible Tells me So” and generally act like every retarded stereotype trotted out to smear ALL who oppose the Left.
Yes, Virginia, there are racists too-a remarkably noisy minority of them, the people who are alive only because it is illegal to kill them.
Then you have the actual “Fiscal” conservatives, adherents of the Austrian school of economics, who’re in the “Right wing” because the Left has embraced a spectrum from Keynes to Engels.
Then, there are the Libertarian conservatives who think government is too big on all fronts. Probably the only sector of Conservative thought that is actually growing, it’s not growing much, or fast. Unlike most of the others, the serious ones accept the possiblity that if they win, they might get hurt by the change-not a real popular thing to advocate among the spoiled brats of today’s voting population.
There’s the “National Security at any cost” guys-luckily, they’re still declining in membership as memories of the cold war fade and the threats become less identifiable and thus vilifiable (Spelling? I went to public school…)
There are the corporatists, but really, those guys shift with whatever party is in power and looks strong enough to give the graft they crave. These are usually hailed as ‘Moderates’ because they stand for nothing but their next re-election. Dems have them too, but it’s a broader selection of masters for them.
Republicans have so many ideologies that are fundamentally conflicting that, really, they don’t have an ideological base beyond opposition to Democrats-and not always then.
A lot of the Libertarian wing would just as soon end the Drug war entirely, thus saving the taxpayers billion$ of Dollar$ (in keeping with Economic conservative thought which opposes ratholing money on a sure loser), but it’s still a bare minority in both Republican, and Democrat camps (both parties have extensive groups that would lose-Dems, esp. the Law-and-Order Dems, have to consider the army of civil servants that would be put out of work ending the drug-war industry, much as they faced with the end of the Prohibition era-which could be said to have been the spawning need that created the “Drug War” in the first place!) and neither party’s leaders want to give up the special powers of Persecution-by-Prosecution that the war on drugs has granted.
Not to mention the many, many agencies that would lose income as they would no longer be able to seize and redistribute property without a conviction, as they do now.
[...] 50% of Americans Favor Legalizing Pot (themoderatevoice.com) [...]
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While I am not wholly on board with banning alcohol, though I am not wholly opposed either, in part for religious reasons, I am fully committed to a ban on tobacco products, among other things.
If one were to label me, I am a corporatist, socially conservative Chicago Schooler. Basically, a pro-LGBT version of Jeff Sessions or Jim DeMint.