With Gallup reporting that a record-high 58 percent of Americans support legalizing pot, Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum writes that the plant will be legal nationwide by 2020.
“I have a rule of thumb that favorability ratings need to reach about 65 percent before you hit a tipping point where a major social change starts getting codified into law nationwide,” Drum writes.
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Ethan Nadelmann from the advocacy group Drug Policy Alliance stated:
“The latest poll results point to the absurdity and even venality of persisting with harsh prohibitionist policies. No other law is enforced so harshly and pervasively yet deemed unnecessary by so many Americans. Spending billions of dollars and arresting 750,000 people annually for violating marijuana laws now represents not just foolish public policy but also an inappropriate and indecent use of police powers to favor one side of a cultural and political debate.”
And Chris Roberts for SF Weekly notes that legal pot is more popular than the president, BART or Congress, which, when you think about it, shouldn’t be that difficult. Congress has a 12 percent approval rating.