As was the case last year, most respondents believe the “War on Drugs” has been a failure.
Many Americans continue to believe that marijuana should be legalized, but are not supportive of making other drugs readily available, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.
In the online survey of a representative national sample of 1,003 American adults, 55 per cent of respondents support the legalization of marijuana, while 40 per cent oppose it.
The groups that are the most supportive of making cannabis legal in the U.S. are Democrats (63%), Independents (61%), Men (57%) and respondents aged 35-to-54 (57%).
However, only 10 per cent of Americans support legalizing ecstasy. Smaller proportions of respondents would consent to the legalization of powder cocaine (9%), heroin (8%), methamphetamine or “crystal meth” (7%), and crack cocaine (7%).
Across the country, 64 per cent of respondents believe America has a serious drug abuse problem that affects the entire United States, while one-in-five (20%) perceive a drug abuse problem that is confined to specific areas and people. One-in-twenty Americans (5%) think America does not have a serious drug abuse problem.
Only nine per cent of respondents believe the “War on Drugs”—the efforts of the U.S. government to reduce the illegal drug trade—has been a success, while two thirds (67%) deem it a failure.
Analysis
The survey shows a country that is concerned about the effects of drugs, and at the same time deeply disappointed with the efforts of the U.S. government to deal with the drug trade.
However, as has been outlined in Angus Reid Public Opinion surveys conducted in 2009 and 2010, a majority of Americans are calling for the legalization of marijuana. Cannabis is definitely not seen as a substance that is as harmful as other illegal drugs, as evidenced in the minuscule level of support for the legalization of cocaine or heroin.
Full Report, Detailed Tables and Methodology (PDF)
Petitions have been filed with the Missouri secretary of state’s office, and it could be the first step toward the legalization of marijuana — if it attracts enough support.
Show-Me Cannabis, an initiative organized by Missourians and businesses that believe marijuana prohibition is a failed policy, filed two petitions with the secretary of state this month, reports Kim Norvell at the St. Joseph News-Press. One of the petitions would amend Missouri’s constitution, while the other would involve a change in statutes.
If approved, organizers can begin gathering signatures. They’ll need 147,000 sigs for a constitutional amendment, or 92,000 for a statutory amendment, before it can appear on the November 2012 ballot.
Amber Langston, Show-Me Cannabis: “I think most politicians are still living in that ‘Reefer Madness’ mindset”
Show-Me Cannabis expects to find more support from voters than from politicians who would be asked to sponsor a bill, according to campaign director Amber Langston.
“I think most politicians are still living in that ‘Reefer Madness’ mindset, which most of us are coming to the conclusion that was simply propaganda,” she said. “As a society we’re still trying to sort out the facts, but those who have stepped out in favor of it have found pretty good support.”
Langston already has a successful track record when it comes to cannabis initiatives. She served as the campaign manager for Columbia, Missouri’s two successful municipal marijuana initiatives in 2004. She’s also worked with Students for Sensible Drug Policy in Washington, D.C., and with Americans for Safe Access in Oakland, California.
Show-Me Cannabis is asking voters to approve regulations for marijuana that are similar to those for alcohol.
Users would have to be 21 or older, marijuana merchants would need a license, and pot gardens for personal use would be limited to a 10-foot by 10-foot plot.
So I’ve really been thinking a lot lately about what the purpose of HMJ should be. I love the site, I love the name, I love the amazing team we have, and of course I LOVE the Greenies. If it wasn’t for you guys I would have closed this site down a long time ago and I still get emails from people just to say they fuck with us. That motivates me (hint hint) but I’m going to stay on topic. We should be about more than just looking at girls smoking and bongs.
I want us to really make a difference when it comes to legalization. Imagine a world where you could stand outside anywhere and smoke without having to look over your shoulder or feel like a criminal. Imagine not having to hide the fact that you enjoy something as natural as eating fruit. Imagine a world where we don’t have to watch our friends and family suffer from illnesses that can easily be treated with marijuana. This is a serious issue and a serious time in our existence.
With the elections coming up and all of these issues really being discussed for the first time, trust and believe that HMJ and the Greenies will be a part of the movement.
Has the Movement Opposing America’s Drug War Broken Through to the Mainstream?
By Jesse Levin
“Call off The Drug War” says former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in an op-ed for the New York Times. His article is released on the 40th anniversary of the day that President Nixon declared America in a “war on drugs.”
Carter aligns himself with a report released this month by the Global Commission on Drug Policy. That report argues that current strategies of imprisoning non-violent drug users and small time dealers has cost one trillion dollars, and led to 40 million arrests, but not reduced the availability or use of drugs. In short, the report says the drug war failed.
The report was endorsed by 16 world leaders, including former presidents or prime ministers of five countries, former US Secretary George Shultz, and the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The 40th anniversary of the Drug War might well be remembered as the moment when the debate about Drug Policy shifted, and opposition to the drug war became main stream.
African American leaders have been historically conservative about the drug war but that seems to be changing. Jesse Jackson, a long time supporter of the drug war shifted sides and wrote in support of the Global Commission on Drug Policy’s report this month. Regarding the drug war, he writes in the Chicago Sun, “it would be impossible to invent a more complete failure.”
Leaders from African American and religious communities, including Rev. Jesse Jackson and Dr. Ron Daniels, held a forum Friday at the National Press Club in Washington DC to denounce current drug war policies and their racial bias. Despite the fact that the use and sale of drugs is no higher among African Americans than among white Americans, black men are sometimes jailed at rates 20 to 50 times higher than white men – for the same nonviolent drug offenses.
In his op-ed, Jimmy Carter explains how the prison population jumped from 500,000 when he left office in 1981 to 2.3 million in 2009. Carter blames the war on drugs for this trend. He says, “The single greatest cause of prison population growth has been the war on drugs, with the number of people incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses increasing more than twelve fold since 1980.”
In 1977 President Carter told congress, “the country should decriminalize the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana” and he “cautioned against filling our prisons with young people who were no threat to society.”
Today, in places like New York City the police are arresting record breaking numbers of young people for simple possession of marijuana. New York City has arrested 350,000 people for marijuana possession since 2002. About 70% percent of those arrested were under 30 years old.
A woman named Alika, a 26-year-old single mother in Brooklyn made news this week after being fired from her job with the New York City Housing Authority as a result of being arrested for possessing a small bag of marijuana in her purse. Criminal records are instantly accessible on the internet and the collateral consequences of drug arrests — like job loss and deportation — are routine and severe.
The drug war is deeply entrenched in our society. Systematic reforms will require support and courage from current politicians and not just former ones like Jimmy Carter. And our elected officials will not budge until the people who vote for them make their opposition to the drug war heard clearly.
The 40th anniversary of the war on drugs became an opportunity for leaders from diverse backgrounds to emerge with the unified message that the drug war failed. It is unusual and thrilling to see support for an issue that has been taboo for so long. We are witnessing a shift of opinion on drug policy. Is it too much to believe that we may also be seeing the beginning of a social movement?
Former President Jimmy Carter: “Maybe the increased tax burden on wealthy citizens necessary to pay for the war on drugs will help bring about a reform of America’s drug policies”
In a new op-ed published in The New York Timesto coincide with Friday’s 40th anniversary of President Nixon declaring “War On Drugs,” former President Jimmy Carter supports recent recommendations for countries around the world to try “models of legal regulation of drugs … that are designed to undermine the power of organized crime and safeguard the health and security of their citizens.”
In the New York Times op-ed, President Carter called the recommendations of the Global Commission on Drug Policy “courageous and profoundly important.”
“In a message to Congress in 1977, I said the country should decriminalize the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, with a full program of treatment for addicts,” Carter wrote. “I also cautioned against filling our prisons with young people who were no threat to society, and summarized by saying: ‘Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself.’ “
“Those ideas were widely accepted at the time,” Carter wrote. “But in the 1980s President Ronald Reagan and Congress began to shift from balanced drug policies, including the treatment and rehabilitation of addicts, toward futile efforts to control drug imports from foreign countries.”
“One result has been a terrible escalation in drug-related violence, corruption and gross violations of human rights in a growing number of Latin American countries,” Carter wrote.
“Maybe the increased tax burden on wealthy citizens necessary to pay for the war on drugs will help bring about a reform of America’s drug policies,” Carter wrote. “At least the recommendations of the Global Commission will give some cover to political leaders who wish to do what is right.”
Federal lawmakers have reintroduced legislation to provide for additional and necessary legal protections for state-authorized medical marijuana patients.
House Bill 1983, the States’ Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act, would ensure that medical cannabis patients in states that have approved its use will no longer have to fear arrest or prosecution from federal law enforcement agencies. It states, “No provision of the Controlled Substances Act shall prohibit or otherwise restrict in a State in which marijuana may be prescribed or recommended by a physician for medical use under applicable State law.”
The measure also calls for an expedited rescheduling review by the federal government that would reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the federal Controlled Substances Act, recognizing the plant’s accepted medical use and streamlining the federal approval process for medical marijuana research.
Sixteen states — Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington — and the District of Columbia have enacted laws protecting medical marijuana patients from state prosecution. Yet in all of these states, patients and providers still face the risk of federal sanction — even when their actions are fully compliant with state law. In fact, in recent months federal officials have stepped up their threats against state recognized patients and providers, stating, “The United States Attorneys Office … will vigorously prosecute individuals and organizations that participate in … activity involving marijuana, even if such activities are permitted under state law.”
It is time that we allowed our unique federalist system to work the way it was intended. Patients and their state representatives should have the authority to enact laws permitting the medical use of cannabis — free from federal interference.
Please write your members of Congress today and tell them to stop targeting and prosecuting medical marijuana patients and providers. For your convenience, a prewritten letter will be e-mailed to your member of Congress when you enter your contact information below.
Thank you for assisting NORML’s federal law reform efforts.
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As was the case last year, most respondents believe the “War on Drugs” has been a failure.
