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Marijuana: Half the Nation Believes It Should Be Legal In 1969, a Gallup poll found that a whopping 84% of Americans believed that marijuana should be illegal. This year, for the first time, according to its latest poll, the majority sentiment on this issue has changed. 50% of those polled thought that the drug should be legalized, while 46% thought otherwise; not quite “one toke over the line” for proponents, but very close. Even better news for those who favor legalization is that the slope of the line is growing steeper, meaning that views are shifting much more quickly than they did in the previous century. Just five years ago, 60% were against legalization. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2010, marijuana was the most used illicit drug, with 17.4 million past-month users. Use is on the rise, too, it found; from 2007 to 2010, up from 5.8% to 6.9%. Among youths 12 to 17, the rate has grown from 6.7% in 2007 to 7.4%. The age at which people first turn on has gone up, though, on average from 17 years of age in 2002 to 18.4 years in 2010. For sake of comparison, 21% of Americans currently smoke tobacco, and the percentage of high school students who smoked cigarettes in the past month, according to the Centers for Disease Control, was 19.5%. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse claims that “those who drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes at least once in the past month are 30 times more likely to smoke marijuana than those who didn’t.” Talk about gateway drugs! Last year another Gallup survey found that 70% of respondents felt that doctors should be allowed to use the drug for pain and suffering. Support for legalization is a function of age, with 18- to 29-year-olds registering 62% approval. Among the greatest generation only 31% agree. More men (55%) than women (46%) favor legalization. Those in the West (55%), Midwest (54%) and East (51%) are pro-legalization; only in the South does a minority (44%) believe it’s a good idea. The BBC recently estimated that 40,000 people have been killed in Mexico due to drug-related violence. Many of these deaths have to be laid at the feet of U.S. citizens’ thirst for illicit drugs. In contrast to the softening in American’s attitudes to legalizing marijuana is the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent actions to challenge state’s rights to allow medical marijuana sales. The battle lines seems drawn in California, after the department sent pot clinics a notice that they have 45 days to shut down. Is the time right to have a national conversation about legalizing marijuana? I don’t see it, despite the Gallup poll trends. Few politicians are willing to get out in front of this issue, and the health industry continues to oppose it. And we’ve witnessed one battle after another in D.C. during this administration where an evenly-split populace leads to nothing but gridlock. Give it a few more years and, if the trend lines continue, the absurd financial cost to taxpayers for enforcing marijuana laws will put such pressure on the federal budget that such a discussion will be inevitable. In the meantime, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws will no doubt continue its work to change public opinion, one toke at a time. Fonte: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tombarlow/2011/10/28/marijuana-half-the-nation-believes-it-should-be-legal/