Poll: How Should Missouri Treat Marijuana?
Views on marijuana use are changing rapidly, all age groups have shown dramatic increases in support for legalizing it:
Fully 65% of Millennials –born since 1980 and now between 18 and 32 – favor legalizing the use of marijuana, up from just 36% in 2008. Yet there also has been a striking change in long-term attitudes among older generations, particularly Baby Boomers.
Half (50%) of Boomers now favor legalizing marijuana, among the highest percentages ever. In 1978, 47% of Boomers favored legalizing marijuana, but support plummeted during the 1980s, reaching a low of 17% in 1990. Since 1994, however, the percentage of Boomers favoring marijuana legalization has doubled, from 24% to 50%.
Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980, came of age in the 1990s when there was widespread opposition to legalizing marijuana. Support for marijuana legalization among Gen X also has risen dramatically – from just 28% in 1994 to 42% a decade later and 54% currently.
The Silent Generation continues to be less supportive of marijuana legalization than younger age cohorts. But the percentage of Silents who favor legalization has nearly doubled –from 17% to 32% – since 2002. (Pew Research for People & Press)
Below is the visual view of the above information.
Right now no state bordering Missouri allows for medical or recreational use, but Illinois may soon have medical marijuana:
The sponsor of a measure that would legalize marijuana for people like Bauer says he plans to call the plan for a vote no later than next week.
Representative Lou Lang, a Democrat from Skokie, says his plan has the strictest regulations in the country.
Patients would only be allowed to purchase the marijuana from qualified vendors, who could only purchase from certified growers. (WUIS)
Would a neighboring state prompt a change in Jefferson City? Probably not.
The poll question this week asks how Missouri should treat marijuana, the existing illegal is one of the choices in the poll. My thoughts on Wednesday April 24th.
— Steve Patterson
Sure, legalize it. To me it seems that there are clear and legitimate medical uses. Additionally, legalizing recreational use could possibly free up scarce (and expensive) police, court and corrective resources to deal with other local issues like gun violence and general larceny.
Saying that, it doesn’t really mean anything if Washington doesn’t follow suit…or at least I wouldn’t bet my Green Card on it.
I agree – legalize it. There’s no good justification for criminalization if cigarettes and alcohol are legal. I think it could benefit the middle of the state economically via production, and perhaps could also reduce meth production and usage as an alternative. Taxes would be captured on spending that is currently taking place anyway.
Legalize it. I have yet to hear a compelling argument for making and keeping pot illegal.
Legalize it. I have yet to hear a compelling argument for making and keeping pot illegal.
“Reefer Madness” 😉 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefer_Madness
Legalize cannabis, and allow for the cultivation of industrial hemp. An eighty year war on civil liberties and human rights is enough. Hell, we had a chance to change it all during the Nixon administration, but Tricky Dick buried the study (which he commissioned, btw) which essentially stated that cannabis is mostly harmless, and that removing cannabis to legal status would effect few negative consequences. Not only did Tricky Dick bury the report, he basically doubled-down on criminalization.
A lot of major and minor corporations are/have been getting very rich on cannabis criminalization, including the for-profit prison industry: More inmates=more money, especially if you skimp on medical care (just do some reading on deaths in prison facilities due to poor or incompetent medical care), guards and guard training, etc. Not to mention the post-9/11 militarization of police, with the lethality of weaponry on the increase and the addition of pointless armored vehicles to police forces all bought by the combination of hysteria and misinformation surrounding terrorism making some companies very much wealthier.
Legalize it nationally, allow for hemp production, and home growth and use. Like beer.