Look at these Numbers!
The latest Rasmussen polling numbers are out and very interesting. After years of marijuana legalization hovering between 10 and 20% this poll indicates that number has more than doubled nationally (41%) and has reached 47% in California. Significant progress, especially when you consider that the marijuana reform movement as a whole has only recently started calling for legalization. In the past the only talk has been about reducing penalties and medical marijuana.
Of course there is another side to this. While 47% of California voters favor legalizing and taxing the drug 42% don’t like that idea. Nationally, 41% of likely voters think the United States should legalize and tax marijuana, but 49% are opposed. Break it down by political party and you find that over half of Democrats (52%) support the idea of legalizing and taxing pot, but only 28% of Republicans agree.
There are other interesting marijuana related numbers from Rasmussen. When queried as to whether marijuana or alcohol was the safer drug 51% chose marijuana and only 19% went for alcohol. Of course understanding the collective mind of the public is more complicated. 25% say both are equally dangerous. Just two percent (2%) say neither is dangerous. Fifty-three percent (53%) of women say alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana, compared to 48% of men. Men by a two-to-one margin over women say pot is riskier, but women are more inclined to say both are dangerous. Confusing, to say the least.
Overall this is some very impressive news on the drug policy reform front. (Think what those numbers would be if reformers had been making the case for legalization for the past decade or two). The numbers still aren’t good enough for our elected officials however. We know our “leaders” don’t do much leading. Generally they look for the parade, see which direction it’s heading and jump in front of it and pretend they’re leading. For whatever reason the voters don’t seem to notice and so it goes.
The politicians I speak to, be they incumbents or challengers, Republicans or Democrats, US Senators or county legislators, are all scared of taking any but the safest positions on drug policy issues. None of them wants to voice anything that might get him criticized by the police. The majority agree with most reform positions privately and promise to take action once elected. Then they say they can’t speak out because they’ve got to get re-elected. By the time they have been re-elected enough times and are ready to move on to other things then they can’t talk about the issue because they don’t want to hurt the chances of their party-mate who is in line for that seat.
Even medical marijuana, which consistently passes with 75% of the votes in states that allow for referenda and, consequently is the law in 13 states, scares many legislators. Unless there is a clear and vocal majority amongst their constituency as well as editorial support from the local media they won’t touch it.
Polling like this should at least ensure serious discussion between opposing sides. With any other issue it would have but when it comes to drugs 70-plus years of demonization and misinformation have taken their toll. The thought of some TV news anchor giggling over some stupid pot joke made at the candidate’s expense is too much for them to risk.
How Long Before This Wall Comes Crashing Down?
A good friend of mine who escaped from Czechoslovakia told me how he used to go to his basement and crouch in a pile of coal to listen to Radio Free Europe. Something about the coal prevented the roving state police cars from triangulating the signal being received and arresting him. After enough people defied the state and in this and other ways (combined with significant pressure from abroad), the Iron Curtain fell. Today citizens of the Czech Republic can listen to the radio without hiding in the coal cellar.
In high school I used to tape songs off the radio feeling very clever for evading the law. First I used a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Later cassettes became common. With the cassettes being so much easier to use such illegal taping became common. Record companies, after decades of showing no moral soul-searching about bribing DJ’s to play their records or using devious accounting methods to defraud their artists from their royalties, began calling the copying of their records “theft of intellectual property” and suing companies (remember Napster) and even individuals for loss of revenue.
Today we have digital recordings, file sharing, downloading and all the rest. Technology is such that it’s just too easy to copy music and, short of turning America into some sort of police state, (perhaps with roving police vehicles detecting music bootleggers) they are drawing their last gasp.
Artists with the vision to see what was coming changed their marketing plans. Radiohead, for example, sold their albums on line directly to the consumer. Others gave up trying to make a living from the sale of their music and focused on concert tours. Music is still being made but the times have changed and so has what it takes to be successful in the music business.
Marijuana has been illegal to buy or sell in America since the 1930’s. The public largely believed the government’s horror stories about it being some sort of narcotic that made users violent, insane monsters searching for even harder drugs. Then, during the 70’s, the foundation on which marijuana prohibition was built showed signs of cracking. Millions of counter-culture types began smoking it. President Nixon’s Schaffer Commission recommended decriminalizing it. Marijuana was dropped from New York’s famous Rockefeller Drug Laws because so many of those being sentenced to decade-long prison sentences were the children of prominent citizens and even politicians!
Things tightened up somewhat with a re-energized war on drugs promulgated by Reagan and the presidents following him. Under Clinton we arrested some ¾ of a million people for marijuana offenses, the vast majority of them for simple possession, but the cat was out of the bag.
Marijuana’s medical properties were touted and now some 13 states containing about ¼ of the county’s population allow its medicinal use. Illegal marijuana growing has become the most valuable crop in California; were it legal it would surpass grapes and vegetables. Even the state’s Republican governor has called for a discussion on legalizing this crop to help with the state’s fiscal crisis.
Poll numbers, which have been hovering around 10 - 20% in favor of legalizing marijuana for the past 20 years have more than doubled. 45 or even 50% in favor of complete legalization are not unusual. When asked about legalizing it for medical use (with a doctor’s recommendation) the numbers are consistently over 75%!
Of course our politicians, from Obama on down, are, like their conterparts behind the Iron Curtain during the cold war and the record company executives of the last decade are desperately clinging to the old system. Reluctant to admit their mistakes and rattle the status-quo, they ignore the reality of the research and the will of the populace. As long as there are other big issues to distract the public they can still pull off their obfuscation but for how long?
As the research on the drug’s safety and benefits pile up, the poll numbers in favor of legalization increase, the tremendous profits from the sale of marijuana (and the taxes realized from its sale) become more clear, marijuana prohibition, like the Berlin wall, will come crashing down.
What is it with these people?
Most of us, at least most of us here in the Northeast, think of Hawaii as a sort of paradise. It wasn’t for Kimberly Reyes. This 51 year old mother of five was diagnosed in early March of 2008 with Hepatitis. The disease progressed and this July she was given 30 days to live.
Hepatitis attacks the liver and interferes with its function, leading to liver failure and cirrhosis. She apparently had a drinking problem and was attending AA meetings however she had missed a couple because, according to her lawyer, she was too weak. The Hawaii Medical Service Association (HMSA), her insurance carrier, twice denied her a transplant because of those missed meetings. Apparently Reyes and HMSA resolved that issue and on July 17, HMSA approved Reyes’ request for a liver transplant… a new lease on life for Reyes.
Three days later HMSA rescinded their approval for a new liver because a toxicology test came back positive for marijuana. She’s not tested positive for marijuana in years and according to Reyes family she was not a marijuana smoker, had not even applied for a medical marijuana permit (legal in Hawaii) and hadn’t smoked in years. She was feeling weak and nauseous one day and took a couple of puffs in an attempt to feel better. The test came back positive … Kimberly Reyes was denied her transplant … July 27th she died at Hilo Medical Center.
Her drinking heavily was forgiven. Missing AA meetings that would keep her from alcohol was forgiven. But for taking a hit of marijuana to relieve her suffering they sentenced her to death.
