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Support Grows for Cannabis Legalization

Pot Plants Under Purple Light in Grow Tent
Photo by Gracie Malley

Legal

Support Grows for Cannabis Legalization

Eliminating the criminal penalties associated with cannabis-related offenses is significantly more important to the American public than the emergence of services like Uber and Airbnb, according to a new poll.

The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey, which pinpoints the attitudes surrounding popular trends in American culture, revealed that 47 percent of the respondents said “relaxing laws against the use of marijuana” was a step in the right direction. On the other side of the coin, 30 percent said they were opposed to decriminalization and legalization efforts, while 20 percent maintained a level of indifference.

What is most interesting about the survey is that more people sided with the issue of pulling cannabis out of the trenches of prohibition than they did for the development of “gig economies,” which includes up-and-coming services like Uber and Airbnb. Only 38 percent of the respondents reported thinking that the rise of these new developments were on the right track, with 12 percent suggesting that they were counterproductive to civil society. Again, 20 percent had no feelings on the issue whatsoever.

Cannabis reform fared better than the creation of “more restrictive laws on abortion” and allowing a “more active involvement of religious groups in politics.” However, cannabis did not generate as much of a positive response when compared to gay rights and support for social media.

The results of the latest poll are not shocking. In fact, they are somewhat consistent with other national surveys that, too, suggest that the majority of the American public sides with the reform of marijuana laws. It is only the lawmakers and Republican guided federal government that continue to sandbag the issue and prevent any significant changes from taking place.

Interestingly, if there was a national initiative on the ballot in the next presidential election aimed at repealing prohibition at the national level, some of the survey results that have surfaced within the past year indicate that citizens would almost definitely be getting legally stoned soon after the closing of the polls.

Do you support cannabis legalization? Tell us what you think in the comments.

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