Marijuana Legalization: Voter Flip-Flop?

27 September 2010 |permalink | email article

A new Field Poll, in a stunning shift of sentiment, suggests nearly half of California’s likely voters now want to legalize marijuana use in the state. The poll’s director, Mark DiCamillo, said the numbers have flipped since a July survey.

What’s significant is that the first ballots for the November election will be cast in little more than a week, staring Oct. 4. The outcome will be watched across the country because passage of Proposition 19 would make California the first state to legalize the sale and use of recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older.

Although neither side has aired any paid advertising the poll found that 83% had heard or seen the effort to legalize marijuana. Only nine percent of voters are undecided.

Likely voters by 49% now support Prop. 19, with 42% opposed. A July poll found 48% of those surveyed planned to vote against the ballot initiative, with 44% backing it. Opponents, notably law-enforcement leaders, want harsher laws and are confident the numbers will flip again. Men, by 54%, support legislation, while only 44% of women are favor it. In 1969, by contrast, a Field poll showed just 13% of California adults wanted to legalize it.

Quotable

“I like talking about people who don’t have any power. And it just seems like one of the least powerful people in the United States are the migrant workers who come and do our work but don’t have any rights. And yet we still invite them to come here, and at the same time ask them to leave.” – Comedian Stephen Colbert, testifying before a House subcommittee about the flight of farm workers. A needed message about truth to power and his presence rankled Republican members, and many several Democrats, which should tell us something.

“They also said Ronald Reagan wasn’t electable.” – Christine O’Donnell, a long shot Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Delaware, comparing herself with the former president.

“It sounds so good, and it’s such a warm message to say we’re not going to deny anyone from a preexisting condition.” – Mike Huckabee, the evangelical former Arkansas governor at the recent Republican Value Voters Summit, was hypocritically applauded for opposing insurance for people with preexisting conditions. What happened to conservative concerns about Christian values?   

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