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According to a new Sacramento Bee/Field Poll of registered California voters regarding their use, experience and opinions on marijuana, a small majority of voters supports legalization. The poll is interesting because it gave voters a menu of options from which to choose their preferred marijuana policy.
Field Poll (July 2010)
| Question | % Support |
|---|---|
| Legalize marijuana with age and other controls like those for alcohol | 47% |
| Strickly enforce present laws and penalties | 19% |
| Pass new laws with even tougher penalties | 14% |
| Keep present laws, but make penalties less severe | 13% |
| Legalize marijuana so it can be purchased and used by anyone | 4% |
Maintaining the current marijuana policy is in fact an extreme minority position in the state. Only a third of voters supports strictly enforcing the current laws against marijuana or passing even tougher laws.
Combining the small group of voters who think marijuana should be legal for everyone with those who support legalizing and regulating it like alcohol results in a total of 51 percent of voters supporting legalization.
Combining that 51 percent with the 13 percent of voters who believe the penalties for marijuana should be reduced without legalization results in a huge majority of the state either supporting significantly relaxing California’s current marijuana laws or legalization.
Interestingly, the percentage of voters who support legalizing marijuana, 51 percent, is almost identical to but slightly larger than the 47 percent of voters who have admitted to using marijuana at least once in their life.
In comparison to other polls
The poll didn’t ask directly about Prop 19, but support for the ballot measure should be very similar to overall support for marijuana legalization. While this Field poll found 51 percent of registered voters support marijuana legalization, another Field poll of likely voters from early July had Prop 19 losing 44-48 percent. This could be a sign of a slight increase in support for legalization, statistical noise or just a result of the difference between registered voters and likely voters. In normal midterm elections, the people who actually show up to vote tend to be older than the average for all registered voters. Older voters are less supportive of Prop 19, making the issue of youth turnout critical in this election.
This latest poll is in line with polling we have seen on Prop 19 from SurveyUSA (50% yes, 40% no) and PPP (52% yes, 36% no). There appears to be a small majority of voters in California who favor legalizing, taxing and regulating cannabis. It looks like the Prop 19 outcome will be very close. What is yet to be seen is whether Prop 19 will convince those who support legalizing marijuana to turn out in very large numbers this November to put it over the top. Midterm elections are often considered “base” elections where the key factor is less about convincing undecided voters than turning out the base of solid supporters.
23 Comments
Don’t Criticize it, legalize it!
JUST SAY NOW!
Diebold, the liquor companies and the illegal drug profiteers can fix 51 percent. We need more cowbell.
After decades of people beating me up for smoking cigarets, I hope these same control freaks restrict when and where weed can be consumed. But, I’ll bet what’s good for the goose will yield reports that cigarets are deadly but smoking weed is somehow “healthy.” Of course, the vision of filtered grass is worth the ticket.
Wait ’til “save the children” ramps up after school starts. This majority can slip away like smoke.
It did for marriage equality….
Do you want your child taught how to hold a doob in fourth grade?
Mandatory drug use classes.
Gateway.
You’ll hear all this, plus pot brownies too.
I saw some obvious anti-hemp crusader propaganda about pot brownies recently. Do you recall?
It is so important that this measure pass. God, enough bullshit is enough!
Having a substance legally available to all along with commercial enterprises (“job creators”) marketing etc. adds to, if not makes, it’s use a culturally and socially acceptable practice. That along with obfuscated facts is what led to the killing of tobacco users that continues. Once the facts emerged sufficient numbers of enlightened folks made it socially unacceptable to all but the most determined rebels. :-)
If MJ is legalized to become big business with slick marketing the same will happen.
It is critical that along with free access to the substance the facts of its physiological and toxic effects.be made freely available. As I have said I personally have no problem with any informed adult doing to their body what they want. I do have a problem with marketing and the politicians that strive to suppress information.
Don’t you mean candy flavored meth :)
“Strickly”?
then again, think of all those returning college students and all those voter registration card tables in quads everywhere :D
although I do agree with you we haven’t really heard from the opposition yet
It seems that this site’s support of the legalization of marijuana is based upon the legal enforcement model for regulation of underage drinking and DWI. What a farce. As if there will be less expenditure of public funds regulating the distribution of pot to those under 21 or driving while stoned.
Please tell me that the Sacramento Bee DIDN’T have a poll in which they spelled the word “strictly” as ‘strickly”!!!
Reefer madness with Rand Paul Link
Decriminalizing marijuana (next, decriminalization of industrial hemp and other Big Oil substitutes) effects a multi-level, state-by-state strategy for decommissioning the US as the world’s “it” girl of assassinations for Big Oil/Big Pharma/Big Brother/Big Money. What’s wrong with that?
What about those people wasting in prison for possession? They are suffering for no reason. Of course, they are probably dark skinned, so its ok.
There are so many reasons to support California Proposition 19 that we sometime forget some of them. A YES vote on Prop 19 will have the following benefits:
Reduce violence and crime
Reduce racially biased arrests
Generate $1.2B to $1.4B in taxes
Create 60,000 to 110,000 jobs
Reduce police corruption
Increase respect for police and the law
Free police to focus on property and violent crimes
Reduce prison costs and prison overcrowding
Expand California economy by $16 to $23 billion
Reduce drug cartels’ revenue
Reduce environmental damage from illegal grows
Allow adults to choose a safer alternative to alcohol
To read the studies documenting these outcomes, and to learn more about Prop 19, please visit yes19.org
If you read this POLL that is 51% for sure YES and only 33% for sure NO. Then take the other 13% and fairly split it–That makes 58% YES 39% NO——-YES is winning by near 20% with only 11 weeks to go.
California Proposition 19 will carve the guts out of the drug gangs, get the drug cartels out of our National forests, and greatly reduce the border violence and illegal immigration.
I hope my kids don’t use marijuana, either as teenagers or as young adults, but if they do, I REALLY hope they don’t end up in jail! As parents, let’s work together to stop putting our own kids in jail over something as silly as marijuana. The effects of marijuana aren’t NEARLY as bad as the effects of JAIL WITH THE SEXUAL PREDATORS, and loss of financial aid, etc. It’s time to stop government officials from ruining our kids’ lives over a little marijuana!
Let’s remember to ask ourselves, “If my child or grandchild got off track and used a little marijuana, would I want him or her to go to jail?”
Californians: register to vote at
h t t p s://w w w .sos.ca.gov/nvrc/fedform/ Just fill out the form and mail it in!
Other states: Google your state name and “voter registration” to find out how to register!
The main point:
Californians: register to vote at
h t t p s://w w w .sos.ca.gov/nvrc/fedform/ Just fill out the form and mail it in!
Other states: Google your state name and “voter registration” to find out how to register!
The opposition will trot out the children, God, and good honest cop stories eventually. But they likely won’t “release the hounds” until three to four weeks out from the election.
In the mean time, they will try to cloud the issue and make the reform itself seem “messy” and “unworkable”. It’s important we stay on them for this and make sure people understand how simple and workable Prop 19 really is, remind people that we are doing this for far more than tax revenue and government programs.
For more: http://421review.blogspot.com/p/cannabis-randomness.html
It’s about time they legalized weed. Now they can regulate and tax it. Maybe I’ll be less cranky…
-Crank
http://www.thebeardedcrank.com
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