Huge News: 52 Percent of Americans Now Support Legalizing Marijuana

"For the first time
in more than four decades of polling on the issue,"
reports the Pew Research Center, "a majority of Americans favor
legalizing the use of marijuana. A national survey finds that 52%
say that the use of marijuana should be made legal while 45% say it
should not." 

Here's the demographic breakdown: 

The survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted March 13-17
among 1,501 adults, finds that young people are the most supportive
of marijuana legalization. Fully 65% of Millennials –born since
1980 and now between 18 and 32 – favor legalizing the use of
marijuana, up from just 36% in 2008. Yet there also has been a
striking change in long-term attitudes among older generations,
particularly Baby Boomers.

Half (50%) of Boomers now favor legalizing marijuana, among the
highest percentages ever. In 1978, 47% of Boomers favored
legalizing marijuana, but support plummeted during the 1980s,
reaching a low of 17% in 1990. Since 1994, however, the percentage
of Boomers favoring marijuana legalization has doubled, from 24% to
50%.

Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980, came of age in the
1990s when there was widespread opposition to legalizing marijuana.
Support for marijuana legalization among Gen X also has risen
dramatically – from just 28% in 1994 to 42% a decade later and 54%
currently.

The Silent Generation continues to be less supportive of
marijuana legalization than younger age cohorts. But the percentage
of Silents who favor legalization has nearly doubled –from 17% to
32% – since 2002.

H/t Tom Angell

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Covered at Reason 24/7: Oregon Considers Legalizing Marijuana

Legalizing just medical marijuana might not
be able to get a hearing in places like
Florida, but the effort to legalize recreational marijuana
continues elsewhere.

From the Statesman-Journal:

Forty years after Oregon became the first state in the
nation to decriminalize possession of small amounts of
marijuana, lawmakers are considering a bill that would regulate its
production, processing and sale.


"Marijuana legalization is coming to Oregon sooner rather than
later," said Anthony Johnson of Portland, Ore., an activist who
leads New Approach Oregon. "It makes sense to regulate marijuana
like alcohol and for the Legislature to take the lead on the issue
and make sure sensible regulations are in place."

There’s a lot more money to be made for the government in
keeping drugs illegal than there ever was in keeping gays from
getting married, so don’t expect politicians to jump on the
anti-drug war bandwagon as fast as they did in support of gay
marriage. Nevertheless, the eventual end of the drug way may be
becoming just as inevitable as gay marriage.

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