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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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US: Marijuana legalization is inevitable in Indiana, rest of nation Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director Indystar Thursday 06 Jun 2013 Writing in a just-published report by the Brookings Institute, “The New Politics of Legalization,” authors E.J. Dionne and William Galston conclude, “In less than a decade, public opinion has shifted dramatically toward support for the legalization of marijuana. ... Demographic change and widespread public experience using marijuana imply that opposition to legalization will never again return to the levels seen in the 1980s. The strong consensus that formed the foundation for many of today’s stringent marijuana laws has crumbled.” Indeed it has. Never in modern history has there existed greater public support for ending the nation’s nearly century-long experiment with pot prohibition and replacing it with a system of legalization and regulation. The proof is in the polls. For example, according to a May 2013 Reason Magazine-Rupe nationwide survey, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, more than nine out of 10 U.S. adults say that people who possess or consume small quantities of cannabis should not face jail time. Also last month, a May 2013 nationwide Fox News telephone poll, conducted by under the direction of Anderson Robbins Research and Shaw & Co. Research, reported that 85 percent of voters support allowing adults to use cannabis for therapeutic purposes. The total is an increase in support of 4 percent since Fox last polled the question in 2010 and is the highest level of public support for the issue ever reported in a scientific poll. Then there is this: An April 2013 national survey commissioned by the Pew Research Center reports that 72 percent of Americans now believe that “government efforts to enforce marijuana laws cost more than they are worth.” Sixty percent of Americans say that the government should no longer enforce federal anti-marijuana laws in states that have approved of its use. And this: According to a December 2012 Angus Reid national sampling of US voters, 66 percent of Americans say that they expect cannabis to be legal within the next 10 years. And finally there’s this: recently published polls by Gallup, Pew, Quinnipiac University and Public Policy Polling all find that far more Americans now favor legalizing marijuana for adults than believe in its continued prohibition. Why? The answer has become obvious. The ongoing enforcement of cannabis prohibition financially burdens taxpayers, encroaches upon civil liberties, engenders disrespect for the law, impedes upon legitimate scientific research into the plant’s medicinal properties, and disproportionately impacts communities of color. Furthermore, the criminalization of cannabis simply doesn’t work. Despite more than 70 years of federal prohibition, Americans’ consumption of and demand for cannabis is here to stay. Voters’ recent passage of cannabis legalization measures in Colorado and Washington acknowledges this reality and seeks to finally stop ceding control of the marijuana market to untaxed criminal enterprises and, instead, to impose common-sense regulations governing cannabis’ personal use by adults and licensing its production. Unlike the federal government, which continues to define cannabis as an illegal commodity that is as equally dangerous as heroin, voters recognize that pragmatic regulatory framework that allows for limited, licensed production and sale of cannabis to adults but restricts use among young people best reduces the risks associated with its use or abuse. Marijuana legalization is no longer a matter of if; it’s a matter of when. http://www.indystar.com/article/20130606/OPINION03/306060032/Marijuana-legalization-inevitable-Indiana-rest-nation?nclick_check=1
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