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To: jeffyraven
If there were a way to conduct an honest, wholly representative poll, does anybody think a majority of people would still support the WOD?

Well, define the "war on drugs", first off. The Gallup Organization has been conducting polls on the legalization of marijuana since 1969, and their latest was last year.

The bottom line? Well, apparently the percentage of Americans supporting the legalization of marijuana is at an all-time high (no pun intended). But, that peak level is actually only 31% of Americans that support the full legalization of marijuana. On the other hand, 47% say that the possession of small amounts should not be treated as a criminal offense.

I think there's quite a long way to go if you want to convince people that legalization of drugs is the way to go. Considering that support for legalizing marijuana is rather thin, that suggests that support for legalizing other drugs is going to be even smaller.

But, the demographics of that study are interesting. Break it down by age, and a pattern becomes pretty clear - 12% of people over 65 think marijuana should be legalized, compared to 28% of 50-64 year olds, 35% of 30-49 year olds, and 47% of those aged 18-29. This might portend a continued shift in favor of the legalization of marijuana in the future.

76 posted on 12/14/2001 11:22:50 AM PST by general_re
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To: general_re
This is a very interesting poll. Thanks for pointing it out.

Let's say for the sake of argument that this is a reliable poll. How is possible that more than two-thirds of the people still oppose marijuana legalization, when every reliable poll I'm aware of shows that at least 40 percent and possibly as much as 50 percent of the population has at least tried marijuana. Is it plausible that such a large proportion of people would do this and still want illegality? Is it a "guilty pleasure" kind of thing?

83 posted on 12/14/2001 11:33:37 AM PST by jeffyraven
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