Search Results: firedoglake (25)

Graphic: SF Appeal
Prop 19 is ahead by 16 points! Is it November yet?

​Pothead Power, people. California’s Proposition 19, which would legalize, tax and regulate marijuana for adults 21 and older, is currently leading by a wide margin among state voters, according to a new poll. The measure is supported by 52 percent of voters, and opposed by only 36 percent.

The new PPP poll (PDF) shows the largest margin of support yet seen from recent polling on Prop 19, reports policy analyst Jon Walker at FireDogLake.
Interestingly, the poll found Prop 19 support among African Americans to be very high, possibly influenced by the California NAACP’s recent endorsement of the legalization measure.
African Americans are the strongest supporters of Prop 19, with 68 percent in favor and 32 percent against, followed by whites who support it 53 percent to 37 percent.

Graphic: Reality Catcher
With the demise of I-1068, legalization won’t be happening until at least 2012 in Washington state.

​Sensible Washington, the group which tried to get marijuana legalized in Washington state through Initiative 1068, has fallen just short of the number of petition signatures it needed to get the measure on November’s ballot.

Friday was the deadline for submitting petition signatures to the Washington Secretary of State’s office, and campaign organizers said they will be several thousand names short of the roughly 241,000 needed, reports Andrew Garber at The Seattle Times.
The proposal would have eliminated penalties for persons 18 and older who cultivate, possess, transport, sell, or use marijuana.
Ballot measures in Washington need at least 241,153 valid signatures of registered state voters to make the ballot, and the Secretary of State’s office recommends at least 300,000 as a buffer, to allow for duplicate, illegible and ineligible signatures.


Graphic: Earth First

​Proposition 19, the newly numbered Control & Tax Cannabis 2010 initiative to legalize and regulate marijuana in California, would lose if the election was held today — but by a very, very close margin, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The poll found that 48 percent of voters would support legalizing marijuana, with 50 percent opposed. The results fall well within the poll’s margin of error, which is plus or minus four percentage points.

Graphic: Cannabis Culture

​Delegates to the Washington State Democratic Convention endorsed I-1068, the marijuana legalization initiative, with an overwhelming 62 percent “Yes” vote, 314 to 185, on Saturday.

The executive board had given no recommendation on the initiative, because “the committee was even more split than the delegates,” said State Vice Chair Sharon Smith, reports Bryce McKay at PubliCola.
“We expected this to come to a floor discussion,” Smith said. “There are some things that are clearly Democratic Party values, and then there are things like this that aren’t so clear.”
These welcome signs of the Democratic Party growing a backbone when it comes to cannabis issues are encouraging; there’s definitely a whiff of change in the air.

Graphic: NORML

​Careful who you trust to interpret poll results. You may have seen the poll that was trumpeted just in time for 4/20, supposedly showing that “55 percent of Americans oppose legalizing marijuana.”

The headlines about the April 20 Associated Press/CNBC poll (PDF) on marijuana legalization read “Most In U.S. Against Legalizing Pot,” but Huffington Post reporter Ryan Grim dug down into the results and found that one of the poll’s questions actually appears to show majority support for legalizing and regulating marijuana like alcohol.
“[W]hen pot is compared to alcohol, support for reforming the laws surges,” Grim writes. “Forty-four percent of respondents said that ‘the regulations on marijuana [should]be the same as those for alcohol.’ Another 12 percent said they should be ‘less strict,’ meaning that a full 56 percent support the policy change — perhaps the highest number ever recorded in favor of legalization. (Alcohol is, after all, legal.)”
Kind of odd, wouldn’t you say? The results of a nationwide poll show that a substantial majority — 56 percent of Americans — support either the same restrictions or looser restrictions on marijuana than on alcohol, which is already legal. But somehow, that gets reported in the national press as “Most In U.S. Against Legalizing Pot”?