Support for marijuana legalization at all-time high

[DonViejo]

Source: CBS News

April 20, 2017, 7:00 AM

By Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus, Kabir Khanna and Anthony Salvanto

Sixty-one percent of Americans think marijuana use should be legal, a five-point increase from last year and the highest percentage ever recorded in this poll. Eighty-eight percent favor medical marijuana use.



Seventy-one percent oppose the federal government’s efforts to stop marijuana sales and its use in states that have legalized it, including opposition from most Republicans, Democrats, and independents.

Sixty-five percent think marijuana is less dangerous than most other drugs. And only 23 percent think legalizing marijuana leads to an increase violent crime.

More generally on the topic of drug abuse, 69 percent think that should be treated as an addiction and mental health problem rather than a criminal offense.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/support-for-marijuana-legalization-at-all-time-high/

[Augiedog]

1. Legalization would have happened long ago if it weren't for the alcohol industry.

[GatorDem82]

2. Well, that

and the whole racist right-wingers in politics and law enforcement thing....

[Stryst]

3. Don't forget the pharma corps

Beyer was a major backer of the "No" side of California's legalization fight.

[SamKnause]

4. Legalization would have happened long ago if the government was not filled with corrupt liars !!!!

The government has sold all the rights of "We The People' to corporations.

Our politicians LIE about cannabis.

Our law enforcement LIES about cannabis.

Our judicial system LIES about cannabis.

Their LIES keep the prisons filled, police coffers filled, and the piss test flowing.

As long as they are making money and getting re-elected they don't care who

gets destroyed by their LIES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Warpy]

7. Wrong, they'd have copyrighted brand names and jockeyed for position

to sell it in package stores in states with that system of booze regulation.

Against legalization are police departments cashing in on civil asset forfeiture, big banks laundering drug money and taking their cut, pols making hay in suburbia by yowling about the poor kiddies on dope, the pharmaceutical industry that would lose a huge amount of sales of things like anxiolytics, mild narcotics, sleeping pills, and some antidepressants, and of course, the DEA, sucking billions of tax money up to throw their weight around here and offshore with paramilitary operations.

Big alcohol wouldn't take that big a hit. Some of the more enterprising booze producers would probably start to produce combination products, so you wouldn't have to pick a moderately priced wine to go well with your bowl or bong.

So don't expect any leadership from the overstuffed Congress. States will have to do this one by one until a majority are stoner states. Eventually the sky will fail to fall and the USSC will finally decree the drug war what it has always been: an illegal infringement of adult self determination badly based on tax law.

[MindPilot]

9. Even the medical establishment is bucking legalization.

Every Dr I see says basically the same thing: "whatever is wrong with you is caused by cannabis".

A few months ago I mentioned that a bad ankle sprain from a couple years back still hurt sometimes, the response was "that is because marijuana makes you hypersensitive to those kinds of things."

And this is a young guy...a resident, and he's not the only one. I get the feeling there are strong anti-cannabis views taught in medical school.

[SpankMe]

5. The words 'marijuana' and 'all time high' in the same headline is hillarious. n/t

[EarthFirst]

6. Especially given today's date!

[MindPilot]

8. Note to government:

You are not our parents. Stop treating us like children.