Majority of Americans want cannabis legalized -- Zogby poll

YOESH!

YOESH!

Bluelighter
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/06/majority-of-americans-wan_n_198196.html

A majority of Americans, in a poll released Wednesday, say it "makes sense to tax and regulate" marijuana. The Zogby poll, commissioned by the conservative-leaning O'Leary Report, surveyed 3,937 voters and found 52 percent in favor of legalization. Only 37 percent opposed.

A previous ABC News/Washington Post poll found 46 percent in support. In California, a Field Poll found 56 percent backing legalization.

Responding to the poll at a press conference Tuesday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for an open debate on legalization.

Voters were asked: "Scarce law enforcement and prison resources, a desire to neutralize drug cartels and the need for new sources of revenue have resurrected the topic of legalizing marijuana. Proponents say it makes sense to tax and regulate the drug while opponents say that legalization would lead marijuana users to use other illegal drugs. Would you favor or oppose the government's effort to legalize marijuana?"
 
the gateway scenario only really plays out when it's illegal in the first place - everyone does pot, and since pot is illegal, everyone gets connected to the black market and "harder drugs". this has to account for pretty much any statistic in favor of the "gateway" idea, if there are any

since alcohol and tobacco are the ones that most start with in the first place, i think it's safe to say, though, that people who want to try drugs are going to. EG one of the biggest producer country (high availability and purity) Colombia has had drugs legalized for quite some time and their use is *lower*. same with pot and the netherlands, etc

gateway to harder drugs should be considered an argument FOR legalization, not against. and considering it's the only argument against legalization in that little paragraph-summary, i think the poll would thus have a "bias for legalization due to total obviousness" if it had been worded more accurately :P

the only reason it is considered an argument against legalizing, is because people of the previous generation were so bombarded with propaganda, that any particular illegal drug is just the same as alcohol (something they are familiar with) except much more dangerous and euphoric and addictive. ignorance 8)
 
^^ you prety much summed up everything i was too lazy to type.
 
Yeah, the gateway thing would be smashed if it was legalized. To argue legal marijuana would lead to using harder drugs you would have to argue the same thing for legal alcohol pretty much.
 
Yeah, it is. No wonder they get these results.

I think most evidence indicates that alcohol and tobacco are the real gateway drugs, althought qwe's statement is very accurate. If getting marijuana didn't connect you to people with other drugs, it's likely you would never meet these people unless you sought them out.
 
qwe said:
it's not a bias on the part of the researchers, the poll just has a reality bias :p
Click to expand...
^What? i would certainly say it was bias on part of the researchers; they are the ones who phrased the question with such obvious bias toward the pro-legalize stance. what's a reality bias? sample group doesn't reflect the population as a whole?
 
Do you really think people are that suggestible on such an issue?
 
yea, i do. how wouldnt they be? it's a complicated issue and a lot of people do not have all the facts.
 
Seems to me that people are generally either vehemently for or totally tolerant of cannabis being regulated in a way similar to alcohol or whatever. I wouldn't think that there would be a lot of grey area to work with. An personally, I don't really find the question all that suggestive either.
 
I read that some monks used to eat nothing but pure hemp seeds for months at a time to purify their bodies. It's a nutritionally complete food, I guess. A lot of potential..
 
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