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A new poll found that 62 percent of likely California voters would support a ballot initiative to regulate marijuana like wine. From the Regulate Marijuana like Wine campaign:
A recent poll reveals that California voters, by a 62% to 35% margin, with 3% unsure, support a ballot initiative to regulate marijuana like wine.
The statewide poll, by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates, Inc. surveyed 800 likely voters and found that 80% of the respondents agreed to the statement, “State and federal drug laws are outdated and have failed, therefore, we need to take a new approach that makes sense for today.”
This is a poll commissioned by the Regulate Marijuana Like Wine campaign to help raise awareness for the effort to get their initiative on the ballot, so the results may be questioned. Still these are some very good numbers for a marijuana legalization poll.
This is the highest level of support I’ve seen in any poll of California about the issue of marijuana legalization. The previous best poll numbers on this issue I can remember were in a Field poll in April of 2009 and a SurveyUSA poll in April 2010.
The Field poll from April 2009 found that 56 percent of California voters supported legalizing marijuana for recreational use and taxing the proceeds. The SurveyUSA poll from Apirl 2010 found that 56 percent of California adults thought the state should legalize marijuana while 42 percent thought the state shouldn’t. Polling of all adults instead of just registered voters tends to find more liberal results.
In 2010 California Proposition 19 only failed by a vote of 46.5% yes – 53.5% no. That was a non-presidential year that also had an unusually conservative turnout, a very unfavorable climate for the initiative. Given that the general trend in the country has been towards more acceptance of marijuana legalization, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if the voters in California approve a marijuana legalization ballot initiative before the end of this decade.
12 Comments
Yes, but I fear that the marijuana & other drug cartels, plus BigPharma, have more money to buy off the politicians, up to Obama, in order to deep-six the legalization of MJ.
It’s much more *profitable* for all concerned if it’s illegal.
Hate to say it, but even the so-called “hippie” pot growers up around Lake & Humboldt County don’t want MJ legalized bc it cuts their profits. I doubt that any of them voted to legalize MJ, and some of them may have even given money to anti-legalization groups.
Just saying… I’m not expecting MJ to get legalized anytime soon in CA, but I would love to be proven wrong.
Jon, O wouldn’t care if 110% of voters wanted mj to be decriminalized. What onitgoes said.
Check downstairs for a JFK speech I posted in reply to you.
Whether for medical or recreational purposes, Obama’s DOJ will ignore the will of the people of a state.
BTW, did O ever quit cigarettes? We’ve known since the Surgeon-General’s report in the mid-60′s that cigarettes can kill you. But cigarettes are legal. And yet, tax-paying, adult citizens can’t be allowed to smoke pot if they wish.
(The government can just crimialize everything it doesn’t want/like, in order to keep up ‘legalized’ pressure against its citizens.)
USA!
Got it. Thanks.
I wonder about O & cigs from time-to-time too.
California can “legalize” marijuana by ballot initiative if the votes are there and the courts allow it to stand. But the shit will still be illegal. Unless California is willing to defend legal marijuana against the Feds with State Troopers or National Guard their anti prohibition measures mean nothing.
The War-on-Drugs is first and foremost about price support, just like any other commodity, except there’s more money in it. Make grass legal and who’s going to buy it, when you can grow your own in a flower-pot.
The pro-cannabis legalization statistics are this high because the wine/cannabis pairing is the correct strategy. U.S. militarism, especially in Latin America, is the biggest roadblock to cannabis legalization.
It will not be possible for recreational drugs to be legalized, even harmless ol’ marijuana.
This is because drug enforcement is a big part of the Control Machine.
William Burroughs said so.
The glacier of reform has been inexorably moving to legalization.
It will happen through the state initiative process.
When enough voters pass reform measures, more candidates will be compelled to support reform.
Or they wont get elected, and winning is their raison d’etre.
Presidential elections usually need California to win. When it passes in California, no viable candidate will campaign there saying “If elected, I promise to send in the troops.”
Here’s a novel idea: WHY doesn’t FDL argue Presidential candidates’ policy positions? Oops, that might not work well for our Democrat in name only, “Clarence Thomas” Obama.