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posted by martyb on Saturday October 28 2017, @01:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the next-up?-legalize-pans! dept.

64% of Americans now support the legalization of cannabis, an all-time high since Gallup first asked the question in 1969. Also for the first time, a majority of Republicans (51%) support legalization, up from 42% last year:

As efforts to legalize marijuana at the state level continue to yield successes, public opinion, too, has shifted toward greater support. The Department of Justice under the current Republican administration has been perceived as hostile to state-level legalization. But Attorney General Jeff Sessions could find himself out of step with his own party if the current trends continue. Rank-and-file Republicans' views on the issue have evolved just as Democrats' and independents' have, though Republicans remain least likely to support legalizing pot.

Also at NPR, The Hill, NORML, and Reason.

Related: New Attorney General Claims Legal Weed Drives Violent Crime; Statistics be Damned
4/20: The Third Time's Not the Charm


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  • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday October 28 2017, @01:47AM (11 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Saturday October 28 2017, @01:47AM (#588502) Journal

    But people are sending a mixed message, saying one thing to the press and doing just the opposite in the voting booth.

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday October 28 2017, @01:52AM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday October 28 2017, @01:52AM (#588506) Journal

    Maybe true, but is Gallup "the press"?

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    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday October 28 2017, @05:10AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday October 28 2017, @05:10AM (#588577) Journal

      Gallup, Gollum, the press, what's the difference?
      Everyone and their orange dog tries to muddle the difference between opinion, greed and the truth, how's one of the people to know what to believe?
      The school only taught the one how to pass a grid test, thinking is so deprecated one can't remember when it happened the last time.

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      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday October 28 2017, @01:56AM (1 child)

    by frojack (1554) on Saturday October 28 2017, @01:56AM (#588508) Journal

    But people are sending a mixed message, saying one thing to the press and doing just the opposite in the voting booth.

    Apparently not.

    When cannabis bills fail (rarely) it is because some absurd power grab was welded on.
    The entire west coast of the US has approved cannabis, which by some standards makes it inevitable.

    As you approach 30 some states approving cannabis, (I forget the exact number) Congress will have the power to tell the Feds to butt out, remove it from the schedule, criminalize Federal DEA operations against it, and tell dinosaurs like Sessions and Steven A Smith to shut up and sit down.

    Even Cops have come to realize that pot heads drive safer than drunks.

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    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Saturday October 28 2017, @02:03AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday October 28 2017, @02:03AM (#588511) Journal

      When cannabis bills fail (rarely) it is because some absurd power grab was welded on.

      Here's is an example for others who read your comment:

      Why Ohio voted against legal marijuana — and what it means for the future of the pot debate [washingtonpost.com] (archive [archive.is])
      Ohio’s Marijuana Oligopoly Concerns [uclawreview.org]
      Marijuana and the Ohio Oligopoly [cannabispatientsalliance.org]
      Ohio's Legal Weed Proposal Could Create the World’s First 'Pot Grower Oligarchy' [vice.com]

      What about Arizona? [phoenixnewtimes.com]

      "It was a bad proposition. It was designed to serve the interest of business owners," says Caulkins, who's based in Pittsburgh. "I'm sort of pleased and stunned that voters were able to tell the difference."

      Caulkins refers to the provision in Prop 205 that gave preference for marijuana retail licenses to existing, nonprofit medical-marijuana dispensaries. With about 130 dispensary licenses already in play, that would have left only about 20 licenses for new entrepreneurs, at least at the outset.

      Although the license-giveaway scheme wasn't as "breathtaking" as the legalization measure Ohio voters rejected in 2014, which would have given cultivation rights to just 10 businesses, Caulkins says it was unethical nonetheless. He compares the scenario to an oil company being in charge of writing regulations on where to drill.

      By contrast, the 2012 recreational-cannabis law that passed in the state of Washington was written by the American Civil Liberties Union, Caulkins notes, "with more of an ACLU mindset: Let's stop people from being arrested."

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      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
  • (Score: 2) by Hawkwind on Saturday October 28 2017, @07:44PM (6 children)

    by Hawkwind (3531) on Saturday October 28 2017, @07:44PM (#588765)

    538.com went further in to the data. No large group feels steongly enough about the issue to cast a vote based solely on it.

    • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday October 28 2017, @07:53PM (5 children)

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Saturday October 28 2017, @07:53PM (#588768) Journal

      That is why all laws need to have an expiration date.

      --
      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2017, @08:00PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2017, @08:00PM (#588774)

        Excellent. Come talk to me after the law against murder has expired...

        • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday October 28 2017, @08:31PM (3 children)

          by fustakrakich (6150) on Saturday October 28 2017, @08:31PM (#588786) Journal

          Well, your congress better be ready with a new one when it does, just like they do with the budget.

          --
          La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2017, @08:50PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28 2017, @08:50PM (#588793)

            If your hopes for a long life are pinned on the US Congress being ready ahead of a deadline, you may not want to put off shopping for a nice plot.

            • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday October 28 2017, @09:20PM (1 child)

              by fustakrakich (6150) on Saturday October 28 2017, @09:20PM (#588802) Journal

              No, I pin my hopes on the civility of the people around me. Not everybody needs an act of congress to act courteously and respectably. Those that do aren't going to change anyway.

              --
              La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
              • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 29 2017, @09:38PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 29 2017, @09:38PM (#589221)

                Interesting that you expect civility from "the people around you" when you lie like a rug. [soylentnews.org] Even if you merely perceived in your own mind as having given answers to the questions you'd claimed to have answered, a simple link to your "answer" is supremely easy to do. That you didn't is evidence of your malice.