The People Say “Legalize Marijuana”
Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 12:14 pm | By: Radical Russ
But the politicians ain’t a-listenin’.
Loading ...The latest evidence that The People1 are way ahead of the politicians on this one comes from our friends at “the Google”. Google Trends is a feature that allows you to map the prevalence on a search request on the internet through Google. In human terms, it tells you what people are looking for2.
When we plug in the search term “legalize marijuana”, and limit it to the United States, we get a chart that looks like this:
What we’re seeing here is 2004-2006. This chart shows the searches relative to a baseline average, which is 1.0 on this chart. Every year, searches for “legalize marijuana” spike in the spring (around 4/20, I’ll bet) and winter, which is usually election time.
When the chart hits 2.0, that’s twice as many searches as average. Around election time, it spikes to triple in 2006 and five-times the average searches in 2004 and 2005. But when the chart dips to 0.0, searches for “legalize marijuana” are far worse than average, right around summer time.
However, when we take a look at the last two years, something interesting has happened. In 2007, interest in “legalize marijuana” stayed relatively constant, with a slight spike in spring and winter. In 2008 the trend continues but shows spikes in the middle of summer – the primary season – and a huge increase in interest around this presidential election without the drop to 0.0 we saw in 2004.
As I read the explanation for the math behind this (and recognizing I’m no Danica McKellar, either), it seems that if “all numbers are relative to total traffic”, and the total traffic on the internet is rising a thousand times every five years, then if “legalize marijuana” is staying at or above the relative average of 1.0, then interest in the topic has been rising steadily since late 2006! No 0.0’s in nine straight quarters!
Also, the steady line of this graph shows me that “legalize marijuana” is becoming more mainstream, as it is not just spiking when there’s a 4/20 or an election that might show spikes due to us dedicated activists.
This comports well with what we see from public opinion polls. The 2007 Zogby Opinion Poll on the question of “eliminat[ing] federal penalties for the personal use of marijuana by adults and allow states to adopt their own policies on marijuana?” found that The People are evenly split on ending cannabis prohibition at 49% in favor, 48% opposed, with majorities in the east and west in favor. Support of The People for this question, phrased one way or another, has risen steadily over twenty years.
We also find that the public support for medicinal use of marijuana is strong at between 70% and 80% in favor of ending criminal penalties on people using cannabis as medicine with a doctor’s supervision.
We’ve told you how President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team was “Open for Questions” at Change.gov. We shared the joy of learning that after 978,868 votes on 10,302 questions from 20,468 people, the #1 question asked by The People was:
“Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?”
We also shared the contempt for The People when the transition team issued the curt eleven-word reply to a very complex and reasonable question:
“President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana.”
Now in the second round of “Open for Questions” is on and in the “National Security” category, after 284,445 votes on 4,449 questions from 20,121 people, we find this question in the #1 slot:
“Our current war on drugs is failing America. Billions of dollars are spent on a losing campaign. Our prisons are overflowing with people that don’t deserve to be there. What is the government going to do in an effort to fix this major problem?”
And in the “Additional Issues” category, after 811,832 votes on 13,539 questions from 45,291 people, sitting in the #2 slot is this question (behind a question on appointing Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the Bush Administration):
“The people of this country want marijuana decriminalization, when will marijuana be decriminalized? Why continue to spend billions of dollars to prohibit marijuana when evidence shows that the war on drugs is, as you said, “an utter failure”?”
Over at the other site, Change.org, not affiliated with the Obama transition team, we see a similar theme. Their #1 issue as voted on by The People was “Legalize the Medicinal and Recreational Use of Marijuana”, which has now moved on to Round #2 of the “competition”.
Then there was that little public opinion poll called the election, where medical marijuana passed in Michigan by 63% and passed in every single county, even the ones that voted for John McCain. We saw decriminalization of marijuana passed in Massachusetts by 65%, and in both states, the marijuana reform laws got more votes than Barack Obama did!
When will the politicians hear us? What will it take for them to get the message that the people want new thinking in drug policy and they don’t think that marijuana use by adults is literally a federal crime?
1 “The People” is capitalized because the citizens of this country are the sovereign, not the government. If we capitalize “President”, “Senator”, “Representative”, and “Justice”, then we capitalize their boss, too.
2 And when it comes to “legalize marijuana” the place looking for it the most is Orlando, Florida, followed by Denver, Portland (yay!), Tampa, and San Diego. Florida is really looking for some legal marijuana!
Topics: Google, Google Trends, Legalization, Legalize Marijuana
[...] famous cop to using marijuana “frequently” in his youth, his recent online polls where legalizing marijuana was chosen by the public as a top political concern, and his subsequent chuckling brush-off of the “online [...]
I do not like the part about payment for weed. I am a legal Medical Marijuana Patient and I shell out 40 to 50 bucks for an eight of an oz. Per every 1 or 2 weeks. On a bad year that’s 2,500 bucks. I should not have to throw my money away like that!!! I am trying to join a co-op that can grow my own medicine and I help pay for the electricity and soil ect… I think if my Military brother in Arms wants people to be drug tested, then we should drug test congress at least once a week!!! Seriously I was in charge of delivering the results of the Piss tests to the Major in charge of Prosecuting all Drug cases on Base and He told me “Son this is the worst shit-hole that I have had to serve at in all my 25 years of service, as far as I am concerned anyone who serves here deserves to be an Alcoholic or a drug addict and as long as they are not dealing drugs, I will not prosecute them, so keep one copy for your files and throw my copy away”. So after my tour overseas was over, I left the Military because I wanted to be free to Smoke weed and not be punished by my country!!! America I would take a bullet for you and where are you for me when I need you? Wake up Dammit!!!
Ditto Adam, Active USAF here.
I understand where Ray is coming from. I was in the navy for 5 years. I had to do many piss test and I always passed. Why- Because I knew Thats all I had to do to get my check. Understand that in the military the worst worker gets paid the same as the best worker.
If you show up to work, don’t smoke pot, stay out of trouble with the law.
You get paid
By the way, many people do smoke meth, cocaine, Do acid and mushrooms. They are very informed and know that the meth and coke are gone over a long weekend and the acid and shrooms are not tested for.
Ray,
I’m 100% on board with you when it comes to firming up welfare policies. For me, personally, I don’t like it when someone has a child when they go on welfare, and 5 children when they are still on welfare 5 years later. But I digress.
I believe that drug testing violates our civil liberties, period. I don’t think you should have to do it, or anyone else for that matter. Based upon this, I really would like to avoid getting caught up in drug testing arguements before we accomplish a more widespread decriminalization – particularly in conjunction with the completely seperate and equally controversial topic of welfare.
Mike
Whoa. You begin with this flawed premise:
Nobody should be required to prove what is in their body without a warrant. The fact that you have no problem with surrendering one of your essential liberties does not provide a solid platform for arguing with me about wanting to take away poor people’s essential liberties.
Part of this is a misunderstanding about the nature of welfare and poverty. I survived because my folks got us Food Stamps and WIC. Both my parents worked their ass off, but at the time, my father was a drug addict (alcohol and speed).
Now, let’s get in a time machine and force Russ’s dad to take a piss test for Russ’s mom to be able to get the food to feed two schoolage kids. Guess what? Russ’s dad wouldn’t pass and Russ and his brother would’ve been even more malnourished than we were. Russ’s mom might’ve had to take a third job to make ends meet, and none of this would’ve made an iota of difference in getting Russ’s dad off booze and crosstops.
Shorter: Drug testing for welfare recipients hurts the children of the addict and does nothing for rehabilitation.
Most people who receive welfare assistance receive it temporarily (less than two years) and are people who have worked before, during, and after receiving welfare. The Cadillac-driving “welfare queen” was a myth created by Ronald Reagan.
Another part of this is the authoritarian lack of compassion encapsulated by the bumper sticker mentality of “Work Harder: Millions on Welfare Are Depending On You!” Nearly everyone among us not lucky enough to have a trust fund is one major life event away from poverty and homelessness. Social programs like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and such are not some odious punishment exacted against the Noble Productive Citizens by the Parasitic Welfare Class. These programs are the “There but for the grace of God go I” insurance we all pay to insure a reasonably compassionate society that prefers the streets don’t overflow with disease-ridden children and dying elderly. Think of welfare as the insurance policy society buys to mitigate the risk of angry starving poor people rushing the gated communities with pitchforks and torches to get food for their starving kids.
And against the backdrop of poverty, how cruel is it that you’d make people starve and live in the streets for using the intoxicant least harmful to their health and least likely to cause social problems! Your drug testing for welfare idea would only move poor people off of cannabis, which tests positive for weeks, and on to dangerous drugs like crack, meth, alcohol, heroin, or inhalants which flush out of the system rather quickly.
Finally, you say,
Maybe not. Maybe they sell weed and their payment is enough stash for themselves. It’s more likely they actually make some money from marijuana, rather than pay out any money. You should be more upset at a great untaxed unreported income being made by the few welfare recipients who sell drugs. Were marijuana legalized, many jobs would be created for these people right in their own neighborhoods and perhaps welfare expenditures would go down. With legalized weed, fewer businesses would exclude workers who use it, and there’s be more jobs for people.
Like a lot of folks in my area, I have a job in the military. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck, I am required to pass a random urine test with which I have no problem.
What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don’t have to pass a urine test. Shouldn’ t one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them?
Please understand, I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do, on the other hand, have a problem with helping someone sitting on their A** , doing drugs, while I work. . . . Can you imagine how much money the state would save if people had ! to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check? Pass this along if you agree or simply delete if you don’t. Hope you all will pass it along, though . . . Something has to change in this country — and soon
Basically I say legalize pot….however….if you have the money to buy drugs apparently you have enough money and don’t need mine!
Um… YEAH!! I’ll bring this up at the next meeting!!!
Adam, that’s a great idea!
Russ, My mom, being a former DC lobbyist, says we need to get more people on the hill. When a marijuana lobbyist visits a representative in DC He/She should have 2 voting constituents from that Reps. district. It is much harder for that Rep. to blow off a group, much less voters from their own district. We need more small local chapters of NORML. 5 people can come up with airfare to DC for 1 person. Imagine those people rotating in and out of those offices in DC weekly.
I have seen it in action.(sort of, I was 15 yrs old) They sent people every week during the year.
Small groups supporting a larger cause $50-$100 at a time. (Remind anyone of Obama ’08)
does that include the term “marijuana legalization” or other closely related terms?