Josh Falcone – News Writer
According to a recent Gallup poll, 57 percent of adults polled believed marijuana should be legalized in the United States. This number is the highest it has been since the question was first asked in 1969. In the Gallup Poll results, the numbers for those who answered that were in the 18-29 year old age range; the number who favored legalization was even higher at 67%. The time is right for marijuana to be formally legalized for recreational use in this country.
Marijuana is already legal for recreational use in both Washington and Colorado and for medicinal use in 20 states and the District of Columbia, so when you look at the latest poll you have to take away the fact that many would like it to see it’s legalization spread.
The detail in the Gallup Poll that this is the highest percent of those asked that are in favor of legalization of marijuana is at it’s highest ever has a lot to do with the fact that this generation has adopted the sentiment that smoking the drug is not have such a social stigma. Most people know someone or dare I say it, are someone that uses the drug. It is not as looked down upon as it was in the past. Too much marijuana use is no different than alcohol use or cigarette use in their day-to-day lives.
Many people choose to relax or unwind after a long day with marijuana just as many do the same chill out with a glass of wine, an ice-cold beer, or a cigarette. It is just that those who do choose to relax with a jay instead of a glass of Pinot are breaking the law, which is silly. I haven’t heard of many people who smoke marijuana and then act out violently were as the times I have heard or witnessed someone overindulge in alcohol and then watch them act a violent fool are too numerous to count. For the most part, I find the habitual marijuana user to be enjoyable company.
In a recent Forbes.com article, Jacob Sullum cited the 2012 Jonathan Caulkins book “Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs To Know,” which discussed the correlation between marijuana use complementing alcohol use or substituting it’s use and Caulkins and his fellow researchers found that “studies based on clearly defined natural experiments generally support the hypothesis that marijuana and alcohol are substitutes.” The article went on to say that marijuana users drank less, which helps fight the health and safety problems, that overconsumption of alcohol causes.
The fact that many state about marijuana is that it is bad for you, which is true, inhaling any sort of smoke is bad for you, be it marijuana or cigarette. Smoke is not good for your lungs. But cigarettes are legal and marijuana is not. Again, this is silly.
If the government legalized marijuana nationwide, they would want to tax it like tobacco, of course, which is where I think their problem with legalizing it falls. They would not be able to stop every green thumb in the country from growing their own plant and bypassing the tax in place. But if they prosecuted those that had unregulated marijuana growing in their garden, they would probably deter many from growing it. I think if John Q. Marijuana Smoker could go buy a pack of Marlboro Green Buds, for a reasonable price he would. It’s all about convenience nowadays anyway.
If marijuana became legalized all across the land, hopefully all the police officers across the country are as cool as the brothers in Seattle, who during the city’s “Hempfest” this past summer handed out bags of Doritos to the crowd. The bags had a sticker on them with a few do’s and don’ts, one of the don’ts was not to smoke and drive, and the do was to listen to Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” at a reasonable volume.
