And still illegal. You know, if you like the risk factor.
Because the end of Pot Prohibition is at hand. (Optional joke: We're going to turn can'tabis into cannabis!)
Anyway, The Economist (worthless gossip tabloid) and YouGov (legitimate market research gurus and polling pros) released a poll earlier this month that shows a majority of Americans favor decriminalizing marijuana and letting the government treat it "like alcohol and tobacco."
Not just a small majority, either. 58 percent favor decriminalization if the parameters are set just right, with the feds taxing it, regulating it, and keeping it out of bounds for minors. 23 percent oppose such a plan.
Breaking down the numbers, 60 percent (!) of respondents ages 34-60 came out in favor of legalizing pot.
More breaking down: the poll's very first question shows that respondents have a mostly unfavorable view of President Obama. These aren't a bunch of hippies and twentysomethings in this sample.
Now granted, a different wording of the same question will get a different result.
"Should potheads get out of jail free?" will score less than 40 percent.
"Should marijuana be made legal?" will score, most times, 40-50 percent of the vote. It did so in a Gallup poll in October of last year with a healthy 46 percent.
"Should marijuana be regulated in the same way as alcohol?" will score the highest. As it did here.
(Bonus Fun Fact: "Should alcohol be made illegal?" scores very high among people living in the 1920's.)
But what is most striking about the numbers is the margin. 58 percent is a strong majority, for sure, but 23 percent against is a puny, sad minority. A minority which won't go mellowly into the night, let's be honest; but if there's something politicians are good at, it's reading polls. 58-23.
58-23. (58-23!)
If another reputable polling outfit can duplicate the same result (without too much cheating), then game over on a national level.
(P.S.: Cool state-by-state info available here.)
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