The support for marijuana in the U.S. is growing by the minute. In fact, it is safe to say that it hit a record high. Everybody expected that Colorado and Washington would be key motivators for the legalization of marijuana throughout the country but nobody quite expect Texas to jump on the marijuana support bandwagon. Additionally, in a recent turn of events, a poll was made in California. Around 1,200 people participated in a Tulchin Research Poll that ran for about two weeks. The result? 65% of Californians support legalization, regulation and taxation of medical marijuana for pretty much all purposes except for teenage use, of course.
Majority Supports Legalization
California doesn’t surprise us though. It was expected that legalization would garner so much support California has been hailed as the medical marijuana haven in the U.S., mainly because of the number of medical marijuana dispensaries, certainly not because of the fact that California handled its regulations like a 2 year old monkey. The poll also reports that 32% are against legalization and merely 3% have no idea what to think about the subject. They must have been high or something (!). Supposedly, a two-year research has been conducted with the aim of legalizing marijuana for recreational use in California. 16 experts have gathered to discuss legal and policy questions that concern recreational marijuana.
The community seems to be more worried about the drug wars (which aren’t really news in California) that seem to escalate with each new marijuana regulation. That is actually one of the reasons why California is thinking about legalizing recreational marijuana. Not only will they make it accessible to anyone over the age of 21, but most of the cartels that operate in California would soon be out of their jobs. Or they might go legal and start opening up dispensaries, who knows what the future brings. One thing we do know, cartels get awfully creative when somebody takes a slice of their pie so we’ll keep you posted on this particular topic.
2014 or 2016?
Regardless of this ambitious legalization plan, there are certain groups in California that are impatient and can’t really wait until 2016. So, the two groups have filed proposals to put the legalization initiative on the 2014 ballot. The “California Cannabis Hemp Initiative” and the “Marijuana Control, Legalization and Revenue Act” would be responsible for regulating and taxing marijuana in a similar manner as alcohol. However, they need to collect at least 504,000 signatures until then and that might prove difficult. Other groups are not in a hurry and will be preparing their initiative for the 2016 ballot.
The support for the legalization of recreational marijuana in California is not to be neglected. It is as high as it has even been. After all, California was the first to legalize medical marijuana in 1996. But that doesn’t really mean anything since in 2010, efforts for the legalization of marijuana for recreational use didn’t go as planned. It’ll be an interesting race. We’ll keep you posted.
“Might prove difficult”…nah, it’s a cake walk in 2014! We have well over 1000 volenteers and 100 locations collecting signatures. Many prosfessional signature gatherers have collected for the past four months to get paid towards the end.
And the Jack Herer proponets get great rates for signatures, a fraction of other Initiatives, so we have modest fundraising to get this on the ballot in November. We have until Feb. 24th to turn in our last signature sheets.
If we’re going to do this, we should do it RIGHT! Jack Herer understood the Cannabis community as well as any and really wanted to protect People’s right to partake in “the New Trillon dollar crop”.
Visit the site, find a way to help, and become part of history!
#op420
Glad to see that Texas is also making headway as well. Hopefully other states start to hurry up and legalize as well! We’re well overdue when it comes to marijuana.