Pubdate: Thu, 10 Oct 2013
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2013 Detroit Free Press
Contact: http://www.freep.com/article/99999999/opinion04/50926009
Website: http://www.freep.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
Author: Bill Laitner, Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?275 (Cannabis - Michigan)

POLLS: U.S. MAJORITY FAVORS LEGALIZED POT; MICHIGANDERS WANT PENALTY EASED

A new nationwide poll has found for the first time that a majority of 
Americans -- 58% -- favors legalizing marijuana.

And a new statewide poll found that 65% of Michiganders favor either 
legalizing marijuana or treating possession of small amounts the same 
as a traffic ticket.

The poll results had marijuana supporters crowing.

"The dominos are falling fast," said Tim Beck of Detroit, a retired 
health insurance executive and avid supporter of legalization efforts 
in Michigan.

Those falling dominos are the other states that soon will join 
Colorado and Washington in legalizing the drug, Beck predicted 
tonight, after hearing about the poll results. He said he planned to 
fly Wednesday to Denver for meetings with others in the national 
movement to legalize marijuana.

But Charlene McGunn, executive director of the Chippewa Valley 
Coalition for Youth and Families in mid-Macomb County, said she was 
"extremely saddened" to hear of the poll results.

"This is a cultural shift that is going to affect kids in ways no one 
is talking about," McGunn said tonight.

"The effects on children (of marijuana use) are long-term and 
intense. People just don't realize -- more kids are going to smoke 
pot if it's legalized," said McGunn, whose coalition launched a 
statewide education campaign in April called "Mobilizing Michigan: 
Protecting our kids from marijuana."

The Gallup poll, conducted Oct. 3-6, found that that 58% of voters 
nationwide "think the use of marijuana should be legal." That's a 
surge of 10% in just the last year, capping a dozen years of steady 
increases in the acceptance of marijuana, the polling firm said.

The rise in sentiment favoring legalization contrasts with American 
attitudes of the 1970s, '80s and '90s, when adults hardly budged in 
their feelings about cannabis, according to previous Gallup polls.

"A sizeable percentage of Americans, 38%, this year, admitted to 
having tried the drug, which may be a contributing factor to greater 
acceptance," said a news release on the Gallup.com website. The 
scientific poll was conducted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

In Michigan, a statewide survey also released Tuesday, in what was 
merely a timing coincidence according to the state pollsters, found 
that 65% of Michigan voters favored either legalizing the drug or 
easing the penalties for possessing it.

"There's a growing acceptance among the electorate for not treating 
it criminally, and there's more people all the time who want to 
legalize it," said Tom Shields of Marketing Resource Group in 
Lansing, one of two polling firms that conducted the scientific poll Oct. 6-10.

The state poll offered more choices than the simple either-or choice 
in the Gallup poll. Results found that 24% of Michigan voters believe 
that possession of a small amount of marijuana should be treated like 
a speeding ticket, with "no jail"; and that 41% support legalization, 
along with the regulation and taxation "like alcohol and tobacco" of 
small amounts of marijuana.

The Michigan poll also invited voters to identify their political 
allegiance. There were no surprises there, Shields said.

"Support for legalization is strongest among self-identified liberals 
and Democrats," he said. Conservatives in general and Republicans 
specifically "are much less supportive of legalization or 
decriminalization," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom