COMMENT,
Why should YOU want cannabis legalized? “Marijuana May Slow Alzheimer’s” (WebMD- read this!), “Pot compound seen as tool against cancer” (SFGate) , “An ultra-low dose of tetrahydrocannabinol provides cardioprotection” (PubMed), “Smoked Cannabis Reduces Some Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis” (UCSD), “Marijuana Compound May Help Stop Diabetic Retinopathy” (ScienceDaily), “Marijuana may be Helpful in Lowering Blood Pressure” (BioMedicine), “Families migrate to Colorado for marijuana miracle” (DenverPost) and “Cannabis for Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s Disease treatment” (NewsMedicalNet). Learn more by running a search for “Granny Storm Crow’s List”. Once the medical facts become known, the need for legalization becomes obvious!
Polling shows that most Americans accept that marijuana is less dangerous than SUGAR.
Why is it illegal again?
Why is it illegal again?
It wasn’t long ago that talking about marijuana legalization was on the fringe of American politics, and the idea was largely dismissed by the mainstream. But a range of polls suggests that is no longer the case. In fact, 2014 may be remembered as the year marijuana legalization went mainstream in politics.
Survey numbers show legalization is gaining steam across the board, while opposition isn’t strong. And this week’s Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll revealed people believe marijuana is a less harmful substance than tobacco, alcohol and even sugar.
How did this happen so suddenly? In a sense, it didn’t really. Look at questions on marijuana legalization over time and you will see a pretty clear trend going back to the 1990s, though one that has accelerated in recent years.
First, there’s a growing population that has experienced the drug first-hand, as Pew notes. But another significant factor may be there simply isn’t a lot of concern about the health effects of the drug among the public, this week’s Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found. When people were asked to choose the substance was the most harmful for their health among four: tobacco, alcohol, sugar or marijuana, marijuana scored lowest. Only 8% of those surveyed rated it as the most harmful.
And that ranking of the four substances was remarkably consistent across all demographic and political groups, men and women, Democrats and Republicans and all levels of educational attainment. That kind of agreement is very hard to find on anything in America today.
Only one group on the chart below rated marijuana higher on the list, those 65-or-older – and even they ranked marijuana as less harmful than tobacco and alcohol.
In some places, marijuana is a medicinal drug available with a prescription, while sugar is called a driving force behind the nation’s high obesity rates. In the 1980s, First Lady Nancy Reagan urged people to “say no to drugs.” Today, First Lady Michelle Obama has made fitness and healthy eating her priority.
When you consider the rankings, the push toward legalization doesn’t seem surprising, it seems logical. Why should the substance people consider the least harmful be the illegal one?
Meanwhile, on the other side of the legalization fight, the opposition isn’t strongly engaged on the issue, according to January’s Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.
In that poll, people were asked how they would react if their state “allowed adults to purchase small quantities of marijuana for their own personal use from regulated, state-licensed businesses.” Overall people said they would favor such a law, 55% to 43%, but just as important the group that said “they would actively work to overturn” the law was fairly small across the board.
No demographic or political group in the chart below had even 30% that would “actively work” to overturn legalization and in most cases the percentage that would “actively support” the law was higher. Again, that’s a surprising amount of agreement in a divided country.
Many people will be watching to see what happens in Colorado and Washington in the months and years ahead. Problems or successes with those experiments will play a big role in shaping public opinion.
Regardless, the marijuana-legalization debate, once stuck on the fringe, is now firmly in the center of the mainstream of American politics.