Followers

Friday, February 27, 2009

Support for Marijuana Legalization Getting Higher, But a Nice Kind of Calm High

POSTED BY: Dennis DiClaudio

Nate Silver sees the legalization of marijuana coming eventually.

But probably not for another decade or so

pot

The first poll, conducted last week by Rasmussen Reports, has 40 percent of Americans in support of legalizing the drug and 46 percent opposed. The second, conducted in January by CBS News, has 41 percent in favor of legalization and 52 percent against. And a third poll, conducted by Zogby on behalf of the marijuana-rights advocacy group NORML, has 44 percent of Americans in support of legalized pot and 52 percent opposed…

My guess is that we'll need to see a supermajority of Americans in favor of decriminalizing pot before the federal government would dare to take action on it. If the upward trend since 1990 holds (and recall my earlier caution: it might not), then legalization would achieve 60 percent support at some point in 2022 or 2023. About then is when things might get interesting. But I'd guess we'll see other some other once-unthinkable things like legalized gay marriage first.

That's not quite as quickly as I was hoping. But I guess that's why god invented spray paint and paperbags.

Original here

No comments: