Law & Politics

Survey Data Shows That WA and CO Did Right By Legalizing Cannabis, Source: http://www.drugpolicy.org/sites/default/files/images/stock_photos/two-adults-smoking-marijuana-talking_5150.jpgNew poll data released by Public Policy Polling is sure to cause Kevin Sabet and the rest of the modern-day Anslinger cultists more than a few moments of consternation. The general findings of the survey is that most citizens in Washington and Colorado are either pleased with the new cannabis laws or feel that they have had no effect on their lives at all. In Washington, the number of people who either like or don’t mind the legalization of weed has reached 77 percent of the population. That’s over 3/4 of the citizens, certainly a strong majority. That means that you have a much better chance or running into someone who is cannabis friendly/neutral than you do running into someone anti-weed. I can verify these results in my own life. Obviously, I’m on the side of the stoners on this one, but the smell of weed is ever more common in Seattle and the amount of people who seem to take umbrage is inconsequential. My son seems to mention on an almost weekly basis that he smells weed on his walks home from school, pot shops are popping up all over the place, and you see billboards advertising for the cannabis industry. Other than that, nothing has really changed. Actually, I notice that my deeply-ingrained paranoia and sense of discretion is slowly weakening as well. I’m find myself more comfortable discussing my weed use with friends and my talks with my son about marijuana are easy and natural. Legal recreational use, in one way, made it much easier to have these types of discussions with my kids. Before legalization, I would have had to take a draconian stance on cannabis, no matter how much I disagreed with it, simply to keep them safe in a prohibitionist society. Nowadays, I can tell them openly that cannabis isn’t something they should be using at their age, but when they are old enough it’s not that big of a deal. And they are responding well. Telling them they aren’t old enough is much easier for them to swallow than telling them they are going to jail or ruining their lives by touching an arbitrarily illegal plant. Similar findings out of Colorado also suggest that the lives of most people simply will not be impacted by legal cannabis, unless they want it to by seeking to use it.