New poll finds increasing support for regulated MJ

New Poll Shows Greatest-Ever Public Support for Legalizing
mar1juana
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/293.shtml#zogbypoll

(press release from Drug Policy Alliance,
http://www.drugpolicy.org)

A poll released Tuesday (6/24) by Zogby International found that
41% of Americans agree "the government should treat mar1juana more
or less the same way it treats alcohol: It should regulate it,
control it, tax it and only make it illegal for children." This
represents a striking increase from previous nationwide polls on
making mar1juana legal.

"Over 40% of Americans basically think that mar1juana prohibition
makes no more sense than alcohol Prohibition, and should be
repealed," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug
Policy Alliance.

Nearly two years ago USA Today ran a front page story with the
findings of a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll which found that support
for legalizing mar1juana was at its highest in 30 years, with 34%
in favor, up from 15% in 1972. The jump over two years to 41% is
similar to other rapid shifts in public opinion around mar1juana
decriminalization in Canada, Britain and elsewhere.

The poll released today interviewed 1,204 adults chosen at random
nationwide. They were asked to agree or disagree with the
following statement: "Some people say the government should treat
mar1juana more or less the same way it treats alcohol: It should
regulate mar1juana, control it, tax it, and only make it illegal
for children." The margin of error is +/- 2.9%.

"No other criminal law on the books in this country is enforced so
vigorously, yet backed by such a small majority of Americans,"
said Nadelmann. "When two of every five citizens say it's time to
make mar1juana legal, the government's response should be to
reduce penalties and reevaluate the law, yet the federal
government is doing just the opposite: blocking the availability
of mar1juana for medical purposes, prohibiting the production of
hemp for industrial purposes, and spending billions of dollars per
year on the war on mar1juana."

"US mar1juana policy is increasingly out of step with our closest
allies and neighbors," said Nadelmann, pointing to the
decriminalization of mar1juana in Canada, Switzerland, Britain,
the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy and elsewhere.

 

For those of you that think prohibition is here to stay, think again. Worldwide, support for the wholesale banning of drugs is waning and the accompanying social costs are bankrupting our country and helping to oppress people worldwide.

It is time to move to a model of regulation, where we tightly control access to ALL psychoactive drugs, not just alcohol, tobacco, and the regulated pharmaceuticals (Valium, Xanax, Prozac, Oxycontin, etc).

In the short term, we can reduce the number of young people who can access these substances by moving to a regulated model, as is evidenced by the drastic reductions in teen alcohol and tobacco use over the last decade.

In the long term, we can reduce overall drug use by using an education and healthcare based model for drug use and abuse. If we can keep kids from using drugs until adulthood (and the evidence shows that we can), when the children reach adulthood, they will be able to make mature, rational decisions about what they want to put in their bodies and will choose not to use the more dangerous drugs out there.

 

And if it were regulated, we could do extensive studies to find out and document the long term effects of these drugs. Isn't it about time that we involved scientists in our drug policy? All we have right now is a marketing department.

 

If science played a role, we could:

Reduce the number of young people using drugs in the short term
Reduce the number of people (in general) using drugs
Improve the relationship between police and neighborhoods
Reduce levels of violence in our society (particularly homicide)
Reduce or eliminate overdoses and cross reasctions
Improve the economy
Cut taxes
Increase the number of tax paying workers
De-politicize drug use and abuse

There are a number of other benefits, but most of them would be a more direct result of regulation rather than just using science to deal with drug abuse issues.

 

America arrested over 700,000 people last year for possession of MJ. I carry a quote from a sheriff in Colorado, here goes:

What kind of peace officer, what kind of society would allow a peace officer to use one minute of time, spend one dollar, or use any jail cell for a mar1juana smoker when vicious child murderers are on the loose?

-Sheriff Bill Masters in his book Drug War Addiction.

 

Posted. Guess you don't have any comments on this thread, huh?