Zogby Poll: Near-Majority Now Favors Legalizing Marijuana

[Joint]

Hopefully this hasn't already been posted:

Zogby Poll: Near-Majority Now Favors Legalizing Marijuana

Nearly half of Americans support amending federal law "to let states legally
regulate and tax marijuana the way they do liquor and gambling," according to a
national Zogby poll of 1,004 likely voters.

Forty-six percent of respondents say they support allowing states to regulate
marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. Forty-nine percent opposed the idea,
and five percent were undecided.

Even more remarkable, a solid MAJORITY on the east coast (53 percent) and west
coast (55 percent) supported the proposal.

"Public support for replacing the illicit marijuana market with a legally
regulated, controlled market similar to alcohol -- complete with age
restrictions and quality controls -- continues to grow," said Allen St. Pierre,
Executive Director of NORML, which commissioned the poll. "NORML's challenge is
to convert this growing public support into a tangible public policy that no
longer criminalizes those adults who use marijuana responsibly."

Respondents' support for marijuana law reform was strongly influenced by age
and political affiliation:

* Nearly two-thirds of 18-29 year-olds (65 percent) and half of 50-64 year-olds
think federal law should be amended to allow states the option to regulate
marijuana.

* However, majorities of 30-49 year-olds (58 percent) and seniors 65 and older
(52 percent) oppose such a change.

* 59 percent who said they were Democrats supported the measure. Only 33
percent of Republicans did. 85 percent of Libertarians supported it, as did 44
percent of Independents.

While the idea of "regulating and taxing" marijuana falls somewhat short of the
libertarian ideal -- which would be to simply get the government out of the
marijuana market altogether -- it would be a strong move in that direction, and
end a major and particularly idiotic part of the Drug War.

Source: NORML news release:
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6838
Found in: The Liberator Newsletter, theadvocates.org

[UCF-Toker]

thats awesome news! who knows, maybe in the next 5-10 years! how many times before have we had this much support? i'm too young to notice a cycle in the MJ community....

"complete with age
restrictions and quality controls"

QUALITY CONTROL! *drools*. no more nasty schwagg

[crusher101]

yeah it seems like those baby-boomers are finally rotating out of the loop on this subject. soon we will have complete majority in the next 5 years.

[Joint]

Originally Posted by UCF-Toker

thats awesome news! who knows, maybe in the next 5-10 years! how many times before have we had this much support? i'm too young to notice a cycle in the MJ community....

"complete with age
restrictions and quality controls"

QUALITY CONTROL! *drools*. no more nasty schwagg

It's hopeful, but I doubt in the next 5-10 years. The reason is:

The Republican's wont do it, most of their base is anti-drug

The Democrats won't do it because a big chunk of their base is senior citizens, and they oppose it.

So there's really no one pushing these bills through, unfortunatly, at least on a federal level.