It seems as if Americans across the party lines have united in one thing you wouldn’t expect them to be united about – the recent HuffPost/YouGov poll reports that majority of Americans, including the Republicans, support marijuana legalization law in Colorado.
Poll Results
The poll reports that 61 percent of American people support the Colorado law, which, as the poll says: “makes recreational marijuana use legal but applies a heavy tax on marijuana sales, limits the sale of marijuana only to people 21 years old or older, and makes it illegal to take marijuana out of state.” A majority of respondents also believe that marijuana legalization will not lead to an increase in crime rate. Besides that, the majority also believes the legalization will not lead to a decrease in road safety, as many opposers like to preach. Only 27 percent of respondents opposed the Colorado law, including just 38 percent of Republicans and 30 percent of those aged 65 and older.
Will Legalization Increase Youth Marijuana Use?
After Washington joined Colorado in legal sales of marijuana for recreational use, it has followed largely the same model of taxing and regulating the production, sale and consumption as Colorado. However, it had some differences, which included the rules governing the production of cannabis in Washington, which are significantly stricter than those in Colorado. There, unlike in Washington, everyone can grow a limited amount of cannabis.
Among those who oppose marijuana legalization, two of the major arguments for prohibition of marijuana are always the same: legalization of marijuana would cause youth marijuana use to increase and marijuana use is a gateway drug to using other drugs such as cocaine or heroin. According to this poll, most Americans agree (53%) that legalization of marijuana would encourage or increase use of the drug among youngsters, while only 29% disagree. This calls for educational activities across the states.
If People Want It They Will Get It Regardless Of Age
Parents and their children should know everything there is to know about the consumption of marijuana and its effects. When asked whether marijuana would lead most people to use harder drugs, a third of the country agrees that it would while half the country disagrees. Where did this confidence that adults know what they’re doing in terms of drugs come from? Surely, not all youth is into drugs and not all youth is into marijuana. What’s important now is to “come out of the closet”. People who are not consuming marijuana would be surprised to see how many of their fellow Americans are using it, for whatever the reason. Perhaps then they would start thinking differently about marijuana. It’s not a gateway drug and it’s not something teenagers will go bonkers about. It’s easily available anyway, only now, with the legalization law, the stigma is removed.
