Via WaPo: Support for legalizing marijuana grows rapidly around U.S.:
A Gallup poll in October found 44 percent of Americans favor full legalization of marijuana — a rise of 13 points since 2000. Gallup said that if public support continues growing at a rate of 1 to 2 percent per year, "the majority of Americans could favor legalization of the drug in as little as four years."
A 53 percent majority already does so in the West, according to the survey.
An interesting shift, if anything because we are currently spending a tremendous amount of money to interdict supply and to arrest and jail users and pushers to not obvious effect on the overall usage of the substance.
There is also this:
the American Medical Association reversed a longtime position and urged the federal government to remove marijuana from Schedule One of the Controlled Substances Act, which equates it with heroin and cocaine.
Schedule I drugs are the most regulated of all substances as they are seen to have no medical value and have a high probability of being abused (see here). One correction to WaPo along these lines: while heroin is a Schedule I drug, cocaine is actually a Schedule II substance—meaning that it is less regulated and therefore considered less dangerous from a legal point of view than is marijuana. There are also a number of opiates that are are Schedule II drugs.
Sphere: Related Content
November 28th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
The interesting question is when the marijuana-legalization line will cross the tobacco-criminalization one?
Maybe I get hung up too much on foolish consistencies like that.