It has been fascinating to watch the rapid political and economic changes favoring the legalization of marijuana, including the growth of a market worth billions in sales and taxes. The most recent polling by Associated Press and the University of Chicago has found a record-high percentage of Americans — 61 percent.
Those answering yes to the following question jumped from 58 to 61 percent since just last October:
“Do you think the use of marijuana should be made legal, or not?”
There is more variation on the specifics of legalization. Some 24 percent of legalization supporters said marijuana should be made available “only with a medical prescription.” Another 43 percent said there should be “restrictions on purchase amounts.” However, one-third of legalization supporters said there should be “no restrictions” on purchase amounts.
What was particularly interesting was that almost half (47 percent) of Republicans favored legalization despite the generally opposed view of GOP presidential candidates. The percentage is higher for Democrats (70 percent support) and independents (65 percent).
Not surprisingly there is also a significant difference based on age. Eighty-two percent of 18-to-29 year olds support legalization while only 44 percent favor legalizations who are above the age of 60. Those are the two biggest groups respectively for Sanders (18 to 29) and Clinton (above 60).
The Democrats are already responding to this shift. The question will be how far Clinton is willing to go and how Republican leaders are likely to change. One obvious response is to return to the GOP position in favor of state’s rights (a position honored often in the breach). The GOP could thread the political needle by simply supporting the right of states to make this decision and agree to decriminalize on a federal level. However, the roughly half of Republicans supporting legalization appear to be largely unrepresented in the views of most GOP candidates.
Source: Washington Post
There is (clearly) lots to say about this issue, but one sort of legalistic aspect of it always fascinates me regarding the conservative viewpoint on the issue. Thoughtful conservatives declaim the broad reading of the Commerce Clause used to justify government authority over “commerce” that is not to be made regular by that authority, isn’t substantively “interstate”, and often wouldn’t even reasonably be called commerce by most people. And, I agree with that point of view. Enumerated powers means almost nothing under that version of the Commerce Clause. So, fine: Toss out Wickard v. Filburn and don’t stop there.
But, how can one hold that narrow view of the Commerce Clause and still support the Controlled Substances Act? The CSA is based almost entirely on that broad reading of the Commerce Clause that is so distasteful to limited-government types. I consider myself a limited-government conservative in most ways (and I am not a pot smoker nor user of any other currently illegal drugs). But, whenever I ask one of my prohibitionist friends where in the Constitution the government gets the authority to ban pot and how can it have that authority and not have the authority to ban sugary sodas (or trans-fats or cigarettes or whatever bogeyman sticks in the craw of some nanny-statist) and I am met with incredulity, as though I am trying to connect two unrelated concepts.
I know this isn’t the place for that debate and I know the poll professor Turley is citing doesn’t reflect any shift in the deeper understanding of Constitutional issues. But, I still think of this whenever the topic rears its head.
You lawyers. The worst thing ever i did with my life was go to law school. A person is never “free” after that. Yet isreali perez predicted in a few decades we wont need cops “ppl will police themselves with their minds”…..that is scary. Living after law school is crazy scary. Second guessing what the ” reasonable man” would never second guess just to carry on liviving. My old man finally said….”not everyone follows the law kid”…..4500 federal felony statutes later…and millions in prison…and everyone doing three felonies per day…..no shit dad. But now i cant live. I am a idf perez mind. Everything — if its not a crime its a suit. Please people if you want your kids to be happy and to live a normal life……don’t encourage or support them for law school. If you raised them with any notion of right and wrong. Because in today’s world only ignorance can find bliss.
There are a couple of problems with legalizing marijuana, but neither has anything to do with the drug/plant itself.
The first one is that Americans over-do. We eat too much, drink too much, smoke too much, take too many drugs, legal and not. We overindulge and overconsume. We know no moderation. So of course, smoking pot will be a problem for those people that need to get high multiple times a day.
The other problem will be the way it is grown, sold and taxed. Let the small back yard grower have a few plants? Not if they can help it. Ohio was smart enough to vote down the monopoly model, we’ll have to wait and see if they are smart enough to do something better.
Why don’t you substitute “having children” with pot in what you said. It is applicable since both are rights.
The fact is that the government can not legalize something that they can not legitimately criminalize. They can no more legalize growing or smoking “pot” than than the can having children, or smiling, or laughing…..
Your use of the word “let” says that you think like a slave and that you need permission from your master to exercise your rights. It is absurd as if you had said: “Let the small back yard grower have a laugh or smile”.
Girl Reporter writes, “Sooo, now we’re a nation of dope fiends, and somehow we can’t figure out what happened to the middle class. The middle class happened to the middle class.”
What happened to the middle class? They protested working for slave wages in a capitalist system created on slavery, so the capitalists found slaves elsewhere, didn’t have to import them although they do like an open border for sewing and landscaping needs, and saved even more money! Now that’s good business judgment and good old-fashioned patriotism.
Don’t be fooled by many upcoming ballot measures. If it doesn’t allow unlicensed, unmonitored home cultivation by homeowners, it isn’t legalization, as we saw in Ohio last year. Homegrow is the only way to avoid onerous sales taxes (25% in OR!) and nosy bureaucrats/cops.
Squeeky, you’ve been swallowing too much propaganda. “Dope Fiends”, hah! End the War on Drugs.
I read many blogs. That Ehrlichman story has traveled faster than a Tijuana street taco through a diner’s colon.
Nick: TJ street tacos are about the only palpable movement we’ll ever see from you! 🙂 I thought you would’ve blown that joint by now.
If the 18th Amendment was to control the Irish and maintain good Christian morals, and if Ehrlichman told the truth when he stated that Nixon’s War on Drugs was to control the youth and black movements of the late ’60s, then there’s not much of an rational argument for prohibiting the use of pot. Suppressing 1st Amendment rights isn’t a good enough argument.
Democrat voters may heavily favor legalization of cannabis, but Dem pols know that means less govt. jobs, their favorite spoils system.
Doglover – “Which is more likely to cause harm to others, guns or drugs? ”
Which one has an amendment protecting you right to have one?
33,169 dead due to firearms of which 21,175 by suicide.
88,000 deaths due to the wonderful drug alcohol.
So one drug alone is more than two times efficient at killing us. Again, I’m all for legalizing it, but if you kill someone, your life should be over in prison.
Which is more likely to cause harm to others, guns or drugs? The more dangerous of the two should carry the more severe legal restrictions on sales, possession, and use.
Legalize pot already. Obama should show some leadership on this. He’s chicken. Look at how long it took him to go to Cuba.
I have no problem legalizing these things. I just want the punishment to exist for when a doped up person kills someone. Same with texting and driving. Don’t make it illegal, just put the punishment in. Cause an accident? You lose your driving privilege forever. Kill someone? You go to jail forever. The problem is, is the libtards will be unwilling to punish people or make them take responsibility for their actions.
I believe that all poisons should be legal to purchase and consume. There are too many humans on earth.
If marijuana is legalized:
Smoking kills. I happen to think that pot in the lungs is as bad as tobacco. But, no one seems to want to make tobacco illegal. Yet, look at the number of chumps who die each year from the variety of illnesses. The coroner never puts down smoking as the “cause of death”. No. It is cardiovascular failure or whatnot. Someone lying there dead on the mattress from lung cancer and the cause of death is listed as cancer. Yet what “caused” the cancer? Huh?
Now, regarding pot. Bob Marley wrote a song. Here are the lyrics:
Warning – The surgeon general warns
Cigarette smoking is dangerous… Dangerous
Hazard to your health
Does that mean anything to you?
Then legalize marijuana
Right here in Jamaica yeah
Dem say it cure glaucoma yeah
I’m an a de bush doctor yeah
So there’ll be no more
Smokin’ and feeling tense
When I see dem a com
I don’t have to jump no fence
Legalize marijuana
Down here in jamaica yeah
Only cure for asthma yeah
I man a de minister yeah
So there’ll be no more
Police brutality
No more disrespect for humanity
Legalize marijuana yeah
Down here in jamaica yeah
It can build up a failing economy yeah
Eliminate the slavish mentality
So there’ll be no more
Illegal humiliation
And no more police
Interrogation
Legalize marijuana
Down here in sweet jamaica
Only cure for glaucoma
I’m an a de bush doctor yeah
And there’ll be no more need
To smoke and hide
When you know you’re takin’
A legal ride
Legalize marijuana
Down here in Jamaica
It’s the only cure for glaucoma
I’m an a de minister…
Here in Pullman, WA, legal merijuana seems to be working out alright. I am amused that all 3 stores are right next to each other.
How is “legal” choosing what your job is going to be working out David?
Or “legal” choosing how many children you are going to have working out?
Or “legal” choosing who you marry working out?
Somewhere in this debate percentages are misleading.
Does approval directly correlate to desire or even use (other than the once or twice and I didn’t like it)?
If approval directly correlates to taking part, then the question: just how many want to be or are in same sex marriages?
I personally don’t care for pot (yep, inhaled hoping for pain relief but didn’t like it for a whole number of reasons not the least of which is the lung irritation and the aftertaste) and didn’t not vote for its legalization. However, I have to say that in Washington State the hemp zombies don’t seem to be running the streets following its legalization. In several companies there are random drug tests. It may be legal to smoke it but a terminating infraction if detected. Not unlike alcohol which can be evident in the breath and a corrective action memo issued then fired. We are an at will state.
The heroin epidemic is not the result of pot….its just very cheap and plentiful. And much easier to pocket and transport as are other drugs. Legalize manufacture and distribution of those? Nope as I have seen the horrible results.
Middle class? Our unemployment has remained relatively low as good jobs grow and people come in or come off the uncounted longterm unemployed rolls. Our problem here is that we aren’t training the workforce for the jobs. Should mention that the majority of high school graduates in the state’s high tech region can’t balance a checkbook.Grand masters at games.
Well that was a series of loosely connected segues.
Back to my point: approval doesn’t mean use or participation or predilection. How about correlations?
I hope the tobacco companies aren’t allowed to grow and sell it.
Is that how a free market should work in a supposedly free country?
What will likely happen is a fascist solution where the big corporations controlling the legislative
process get favorable treatment….
Since when do our rights depend upon how many people approve of you exercising that right? This is not the way to look at this!
Sooo, now we’re a nation of dope fiends, and somehow we can’t figure out what happened to the middle class. The middle class happened to the middle class.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter