Pubdate: Tue, 10 Dec 2013
Source: Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA)
Copyright: 2013 The Press-Enterprise Company
Contact: http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/letters_form.html
Website: http://www.pe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/830
Author: Richard K. DeAtley

Marijuana

FIELD POLL SAYS CALIFORNIANS NOW FAVOR LEGALIZATION

In a first for California, a majority of voters now favors 
legalization of marijuana, and most want pot regulated like alcohol, 
according to Field Poll results released Tuesday, Dec. 10.

The poll began asking about marijuana decriminalization in 1969. A 
clear majority of respondents never favored it until now. In 1969, 75 
percent of Californians wanted the state's marijuana laws strictly 
enforced, or even toughened.

The nonpartisan poll conducted last week for The Press-Enterprise and 
other California media subscribers showed 55 percent now favor 
legalization. The split among those was 47 percent for legalizing it 
with age and other controls similar to alcohol laws, while 8 percent 
said it should be legalized so anyone could purchase it.

Just 31 percent now support strict enforcement of current laws or 
passing tougher ones. Another 12 percent wants to keep the present 
ban but ease penalties and 2 percent had no opinion.

Today's Field Poll also showed that when respondents were read a 
summary of a proposed initiative in California to legalize marijuana 
for recreational and medical use, 56 percent said they would support 
it and 39 percent said they would be opposed. Five percent were undecided.

"You have just had a whole new reevaluation," of marijuana, Field 
Poll Director Mark DiCamillo said in a telephone interview. "What is 
different is that in 1969, there was a much more prevalent view that 
marijuana would lead to harder drugs and addiction."

But since then, respondents have removed marijuana from consideration 
with harder drugs, he said.

"That is probably the biggest single shift in attitudes toward 
marijuana," DiCamillo said.

The Field Poll conclusion reflects a national Gallup Poll released 
late in October. It also found for the first time that 58 percent of 
Americans favored legalizing marijuana.

"These different polls are showing the same thing," said Lanny 
Swerdlow, a longtime Inland advocate for marijuana legalization. 
Swerdlow operated a medical marijuana clinic in Riverside that was 
closed in May after the California Supreme Court upheld a Riverside 
law that allowed local governments to ban dispensaries.

"It's a number of different things," Swerdlow said of the poll 
results favoring legalization. "One was the advent of medical 
marijuana. It has some very beneficial uses and the government has 
lied about its dangers. People are beginning to see through that."

The California Cannabis Hemp Initiative is currently cleared by the 
state Attorney General to gather petition signatures. Organizers will 
need more than 500,000 valid signatures from registered voters by 
Feb. 24, 2014 to qualify for the November 2014 general election 
ballot. The initiative, decriminalization of all hemp and cannabis 
use, is the most advanced among three efforts to get legalization of 
marijuana on the California ballot again.

Paul Chabot, who heads the Coalition for a Drug-Free California, said 
the official summary of the initiative, which discusses reviewing 
cases of persons convicted of non-violent marijuana offenses for 
possible modification or custody release, misleads voters.

"The pro-marijuana crowd likes the voters to believe cops are locking 
up low-level marijuana users. In California, it's a $100 fine, a lot 
less than for running a red-light camera. If they simply asked the 
question, 'Should we legalize pot in California, yes or no?' I think 
we would have a much different outcome in the polling," he said in a 
phone interview.

In November 2012, voters in Colorado and Washington approved 
initiatives legalizing marijuana for medicinal and recreational use. 
California currently permits cultivation and sale of medical 
marijuana, but hundreds of local governments have banned storefront 
dispensaries, including the cities of Riverside and San Bernardino as 
well as Riverside County and San Bernardino County.

DiCamillo also noted that the ages of respondents who said they would 
approve marijuana legalization has grown. It used to dominate the 
18-39 age group. With the most recent poll, there was 64 percent 
approval from that group, and also ages 40-49, DiCamillo said.

"As the younger crowed gets older, it takes its attitudes with it," 
he said, while the older set of voters with the greatest opposition 
is dying off. DiCamillo said that pattern also holds with other 
social issues, such as same-sex marriage. But he said early poll 
readings on whether an initiative will pass have to be tempered with 
the prospects of a campaign, if the measure gets on the ballot.

"The quality of the campaigning matters," DiCamillo said, recalling 
how intensive work brought Prop. 8 from negative polling to voter 
approval in 2008. Chabot said separately that 2010's Prop. 19 
marijuana legalization initiative also started with a lead in polls, 
but was defeated.

The telephone poll of 1,002 registered voters was conducted between 
Nov. 14 and Dec. 5. It has a margin of error ranging from plus or 
minus 3.2 to 4.5 percentage points.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom