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Record-High 50% Want Marijuana Legalized

55% of men approve, but only 46% of women

By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 17, 2011 5:53 PM CDT

(Newser) – A record-breaking 50% of Americans now say it's OK to smoke up for recreational purposes, a new Gallup poll finds. Support broke down along political lines, with liberals 69% in favor and conservatives only 34%; moderates crossed the line at 57%. By region, only the South opposed legalizing marijuana, while Americans aged 18-29 approved (62%) and those over 65 did not (only 31% approved).

Marijuana approval hit a previous Gallup-high of 46% last year after a long ride that started at 12% in 1969. Support hovered around the mid-20s into the mid-1990s, and then—after the era of "I didn't inhale" jokes—jumped past 30% in 2000 and 40% in 2009. A survey in that year found that nearly 17 million Americans over the age of 11 had used Mary Jane at least once a month before being surveyed.

SAN FRANCISCO - NOVEMBER 29: Jonathan Beaver of San Francisco holds a marijuana cigarette at the San Francisco Patients Cooperative, a medical cannabis cooperative, November 29, 2004 in San Francisco, California. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether people who have a doctor's recommendation to use medicinal marijuana in...
SAN FRANCISCO - NOVEMBER 29: Jonathan Beaver of San Francisco holds a marijuana cigarette at the San Francisco Patients Cooperative, a medical cannabis cooperative, November 29, 2004 in San Francisco,...   (Getty Images)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 112 comments
Concerned_Parent
Oct 19, 2011 10:57 AM CDT
Jesus said to do unto others as we would have them to do unto us. None of us would want our child thrown in jail with the sexual predators over marijuana. None of us would want to see an older family member’s home confiscated and sold by the police for growing a couple of marijuana plants for their aches and pains. It’s time to stop putting our own family members in jail over marijuana. If ordinary Americans could grow a little marijuana in their own back yards, it would be about as valuable as home-grown tomatoes. Let's put the criminals out of business and get them out of our neighborhoods. Let's let ordinary Americans grow a little marijuana in their own back yards. You can email your Congressperson and Senators at http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml to discuss HR 2306, the bill that would repeal Federal prohibition. And a big THANK YOU to the courageous, freedom loving legislators, governors, and countless others who are working so hard to bring this through! You’re doing a great patriotic service for all of America!  Here's one way that IT IS REALLY WORKING: Arresting the criminals and collecting a fee from registered growers (and bringing in thousands of dollars to support the county budget); what a great plan! This is the way to build a better America! http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/2011/07/the-pot-republic-one-sheriffs-quietly-radical-experiment.html  
saucier111
Oct 18, 2011 11:58 AM CDT
In 1937 reefer maddness slander and lies make Marijuana illegal why. It was mostly due to greed by Dupont who had the first patents for turning oil into plastics and did not want any competition. William Randolph Hurst who lost a law suit to poncho Villa over 800,000 acres of land. So after that the newspaper tycoon hated Mexicians,and they were the main ones that smoked Marijuana,so we have racism. We have Harry J. Anslinger appointed head of the narcotics task force by his father in law William Mellon head of the treasury.Anslinger being overly ambitious and of low moral spread lies and propaganda about Marijuana for over 30 years,he brought us reefer maddness,if you smoke it you will kill people. Is this what we base laws on greed,lies and racism in America,apparently so.
saucier111
Oct 18, 2011 11:44 AM CDT
Marijuana is the safest therapeutically active substance known to mankind. What are wrong with our politicians today,legalizing Marijuana is a win,win for America.Not just to mention the 100,000 jobs it would create all tax paying. We would save around 40,000,000,000 dollars a year on arrest,court,prosecutors,judges ,prisons,jails,irradication,parole officers,etc,etc.Know we tax Marijuana and make roughly 40,000,000,000 dollars a year on taxes with what we saved,in ten years that's 800,000,000,000 dollars of additional revenue. Our politicians need to be fired, or they need to get America back on it's feet.

 
medical marijuana • marijuana • marijuana legalization • Gallup poll

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