By "Radical" Russ Belville on July 22, 2010
(Angus Reid) In the online survey of a representative national sample of 1,003 adults, 64 per cent of respondents believe America has a serious drug abuse problem that affects the whole country. One-in-five (20%) believe America’s drug abuse problem is confined to specific areas and people, while seven per cent believe America does not have a serious drug abuse problem.
Two thirds of respondents (65%) believe the “War on Drugs”—the efforts of the U.S. government to reduce the illegal drug trade—has been a failure, while only eight per cent deem it a success.
More than half of respondents (52%) support the legalization of marijuana. While clear majorities of Democrats (57%) and Independents (59%) agree with this course of action, only about two-in-five Republicans (38%) concur.
Posted in ACTIVISM, LEGISLATION, SCIENCE | Tagged Angus Reid Global Monitor
I am the producer of The NORML Network, the host of the NORML SHOW LIVE and The NORML Stash Blog, and NORML's Outreach Coordinator. I'm married, live in Portland, Oregon, and I am a registered medical marijuana caregiver in this state. I've worked days as an IT geek and nights as a professional musician. Previously, I have been the host of my own political talk radio show on satellite radio. I've been the High Times "Freedom Fighter of the Month" and I travel across the country to educate people on marijuana reform. I've dedicated my life to bringing an end to adult marijuana prohibition and re-legalizing cannabis hemp, and I'm honored to be chosen by NORML to give voice to the Marijuana Nation and to speak for those who can't speak up.
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[...] s); })(); The latest poll from Angus-Reid, which has previously found that majorities (52%, 55%) in America support legalization of marijuana, shows that Americans, Canadians, and Britons do [...]
I could birth never understood why somebody has dealt so intensively with this issue. Now afford up to me full go. Really interesting your thesis. Although my English language is non so proficient, your text I can realise. Keep up the Light.
[...] percent of American adults support legalizing marijuana, up from 52 percent in 2010, according to the results of a new Angus Reid Public Opinion [...]
[...] York, NY: Fifty-five percent of American adults support legalizing marijuana, up from 52 percent in 2010, according to the results of a new Angus Reid Public Opinion [...]
[...] York, NY: Fifty-five percent of American adults support legalizing marijuana, up from 52 percent in 2010, according to the results of a new Angus Reid Public Opinion [...]
[...] York, NY: Fifty-five percent of American adults support legalizing marijuana, up from 52 percent in 2010, according to the results of a new Angus Reid Public Opinion [...]
[...] percent of American adults support legalizing marijuana, up from 52 percent in 2010, according to the results of a new Angus Reid Public Opinion [...]
[...] percent of American adults support legalizing marijuana, up from 52 percent in 2010, according to the results of a new Angus Reid Public Opinion [...]
[...] percent of American adults support legalizing marijuana, up from 52 percent in 2010, according to the results of a new Angus Reid Public Opinion [...]
[...] percent of American adults support legalizing marijuana, up from 52 percent in 2010, according to the results of a new Angus Reid Public Opinion [...]
[...] percent of American adults support legalizing marijuana, up from 52 percent in 2010, according to the results of a new Angus Reid Public Opinion [...]
[...] percent of American adults support legalizing marijuana, up from 52 percent in 2010, according to the results of a new Angus Reid Public Opinion [...]
[...] almost 100 years of marijuana prohibition in California, marijuana is more popular and accepted than ever. Prohibition has clearly failed. Prop 19 gives us another choice, one that benefits not just [...]
[...] almost 100 years of marijuana prohibition in California, marijuana is more popular and accepted than ever. Prohibition has clearly failed. Prop 19 gives us another choice, one that benefits not just [...]
[...] almost 100 years of marijuana prohibition in California, marijuana is more popular and accepted than ever. Prohibition has clearly failed. Prop 19 gives us another choice, one that benefits not just [...]
[...] chuckled at when we suggest legalizing marijuana (see videos below), even as more than half of America on some polls – not just Left Blogsylvania – are beginning to think it is a damn good [...]
[...] chuckled at when we suggest legalizing marijuana (see videos below), even as more than half of America on some polls – not just Left Blogsylvania – are beginning to think it is a damn good idea and [...]
Roger Christie is denied bail because 53% VOTE with him…therefore the govt. voice can say “he listens to only himself”–53% is the majority the last I studied math.ILLogic on Roger and THC Ministry is evident even in this beacon of Aristotle-Rad Russ is great,yet biased on the mission,sincerity and intent of Hawai’i THC Comfort/Ministry.
Politics… Who needs ‘em? Well, it might just be everyone in this case. There are some intelligent and perceptive people making policy decisions in the US and at the UN (which is really the same thing). They know they have been defeated in their War on Drugs and must find the fact acutely embarrassing. As a rule, people don’t like losing fights or wars and, having done so, saving face becomes highest priority. Defeat has been indirectly admitted by the Obama administration: ‘We no longer call it the War on Drugs.’
The Russians don’t seem to have got the message, though. I’m sure there are plenty of intelligent and perceptive people in the Kremlin, as well as the White House, but they don’t have the same experience of defeat as the Americans do. (They have their own, which is no less valuable.) They’ve gone into ‘moron mode’ in their approach to drugs, just like their counterparts in the West did some thirty-odd years ago. This is something the Russians are extraordinarily good at… And human rights.
The appointment of Yuri Fedotov to the UNODC Boss job is a cause for great celebration for those who are eager to change current international drug policies. Not only does it underline the Americans’ admission of defeat in one of their most ridiculous holy crusades (The War on Drugs) but it has finally set the stage for the repeal of the (US/)UN(/UK) (Axis) ‘Narcotics’ Conventions of 1961 and ’88, which in turn should lead to a number of other equally important and similarly obstructed measures.
Look around outside the box – you don’t even really need to think, just open you eyes – and consider an internal dialogue:?
‘We’ve lost. What can we do?’?
‘Blame it on the Russians.’
?‘No-one’s going to buy it.’
?‘Make ‘em beg for it.’
?‘How so?’?
‘Flood the country with heroin so that they have no choice but to demand responsibility for stopping it. That way we kill a whole bunch of birds with one stone:?
1) we save face by distancing ourselves from defeat without even ever actually openly admitting defeat;?
2) they take over, assuming the same position that caused our defeat, making the same mistakes until they’re forced – just as we have been – to come to terms with defeat; that way they take the blame and get called fools for repeating the mistakes which we can claim to have innocently made and they’re seen as idiots for repeating our mistakes; and the really, really good part is that we can then say, ‘Ah, yes, but you see, we’d already understood what we’d done wrong and started to embrace harm reduction before those idiots took over and made a mess of the good work we’d started to do, and we only let them because we’re such good, kind and trusting souls – always willing to give them enough rope to hang themselves – and they pressured us so hard to do so.’;?
3) when they’ve made such a mess of it that they’re crawling away on their knees, just like they did from Afghanistan twenty years ago, then we can waltz back in as heros, repealing the Conventions, replacing them with new ones to our liking, minimizing damage to our good selves, maximizing damage to them, thereby strengthening our position in the core of the Axis. How’s that for a strategy?’?
‘Let’s do it!’
Personally, I don’t believe the Americans are as stupid as one might be led to believe by a simple analysis of their holy crusades, particularly the War on Drugs. Once they’ve managed to pull off something like the plan outlined above, I’m sure they’ll take a more intelligent approach to the new and improved Axis ‘Narcotics’ Conventions. Having lived and worked in Russia and the ex-Soviet Union for several years, however, I’m afraid I can’t find the same confidence in the Russians’ capabilities. I don’t think I’m revealing anything other than the obvious here. It won’t be long before the Russians have dug a hole for themselves so deep that their infractions of human rights become intolerable and they’re forced to retire from their fantasy role as ‘savior of traditional values’. As far as I can see, this is the only way the Axis is able to deal with the defeat it’s suffered. And it’s not a bad plan.
So take heart those of you who await intelligence from our masters. I see light at the end of the long, long, dark and decaying tunnel which has caused such horrific pain and suffering.
The thing that gets me is not one other thing in our nation has 52% support and yet is made illegal! Look for anything in our history that has had this much support yet still didnt get a voice or reformed because of it. Its BS we have more than half the nation wanting legalized cannabis yet not one person in DC will stand up and say this same thing. What they are doing is ignoring the problem and keeping a failed system in place for no reason but not to rock the boat! All this happens while we are hunted down like dogs and treated like criminals, great!
Seems to me the first party to pick this issue up will be the winners in the next election 2012, think they might do it, NO! Thats why we are here to do it ourselves and not wait for some one person to save us, it wont happen! Again We all have to pledge, “I will not vote for anyone that would have me or my fellow tokers arrested over cannabis”. It only takes one time to upset an election buy casting all the cannabis votes to a third party and causing a loss to one of the major parties. I bet we would see change happen a lot faster if they know non-action or non-support will mean a loss.
Voting the lesser of two evils isnt working, we have done that for years now, we have to use our numbers to make a statement like, you will loose if you do not support reform! How many will take this pledge? I did years ago and Im still waiting for the rest of you tokers to join me! Dont think for one sec that voting a third party will do nothing, come 2012 if Obama looses due to us voting a third party it will shake the party to the bone and they will have to act or loose again and again. Together our voting power is overwhelming so if we join and vote together today we can and will end this tomorrow.
Yes, I believe you’re right: people are not as stupid, close-minded or stubbornly arrogant as their masters and humility is a fundamental precept of Christianity, which is still an important religion, even in America.
Sadly, I think a lot of those republicans would change their minds if they heard the truth from a point of view different than their own. I know this from experience. Most, well maybe less than most, but anyways; they have open minds and will actually listen to reason. We need to bring the message to the people. Stop preaching to the choir. And I mean this in the most non-combative, constructive way. I tell my father(a methodist minister) this as well. He’s not doing any good in a country church where everybody already believes! We need to get out amongst the people and show them the truth about prohibition. You should spend every dollar NORML has on a giant religious people outreach program. It would have the highest impact our country as a whole. Everybody who needs to hear this, goes to church. You know I’m right…
You guys all under-estimate the the rational honesty (also known as “being humble”) of most Christians. They will listen if we ask them to.
53% ftw
I may be wrong but, isn’t 53% the magic number?