Rollin' rollin' rollin'

From Advocates for Self-Government: The Liberator Online.

Zogby Poll: Near-Majority Now Favor Legalizing Marijuana

Nearly half of Americans support amending federal law "to let states legally regulate and tax marijuana the way they do liquor and gambling," according to a national Zogby poll of 1,004 likely voters.

Forty-six percent of respondents say they support allowing states to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. Forty-nine percent opposed the idea, and five percent were undecided.

Even more remarkable, a solid MAJORITY on the east coast (53 percent) and west coast (55 percent) supported the proposal.

"Public support for replacing the illicit marijuana market with a legally regulated, controlled market similar to alcohol -- complete with age restrictions and quality controls -- continues to grow," said Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of NORML, which commissioned the poll. "NORML's challenge is to convert this growing public support into a tangible public policy that no longer criminalizes those adults who use marijuana responsibly."

Respondents' support for marijuana law reform was strongly influenced by age and political affiliation:

* Nearly two-thirds of 18-29 year-olds (65 percent) and half of 50-64 year-olds think federal law should be amended to allow states the option to regulate marijuana.
* However, majorities of 30-49 year-olds (58 percent) and seniors 65 and older (52 percent) oppose such a change.

* 59 percent who said they were Democrats supported the measure. Only 33 percent of Republicans did. 85 percent of Libertarians supported it, as did 44 percent of Independents.

While the idea of "regulating and taxing" marijuana falls somewhat short of the libertarian ideal -- which would be to simply get the government out of the marijuana market altogether -- it would be a strong move in that direction, and end a major and particularly idiotic part of the Drug War.

Source: NORML news release

(emphasis mine)
Those age groups in opposition are quite predictable. I don’t mean that in any negative sense. It’s just that they are, in the first case of 30 to 49 year olds, the folk most likely to be raising children and therefore to have quite a rational motivation for keeping marijuana and other social toxins out of their environment.

Folks in the older groups are simply tend to be more conservative in their opinions generally. That’s just the natural development of Homo sapiens for taking fewer, and safer, risks as we age.

The bottom line is that recreational drug usage has got to be considered an individual right if we’re to viscerally and fully understand, as a society, what it means to expect individuals to be responsible for our own lives and actions. Assess folk with fines for breaking laws – including creating a nuisance or contributing to the “delinquency” of minors – just as is done with drivers’ licenses and alcohol consumption. If a person is causing no harm then no one, most especially including the duly elected government, should enforce their own moirés upon them.



Update: Total apologies for that one being one whacked out paragraph all day. MSWord's what I have at work and the Blogger Add-in apparently has some bugs.