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Tag: Marijuana Reform

  • Majority of U.S. High Schoolers Are Cool With Marijuana

    As U.S. states begin to roll back prohibitions on marijuana, younger Americans are beginning to view the drug in a more favorable light.

    A new survey out from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) this week is showing that teens’ attitudes toward marijuana are now softening. The report shows that more than 60% of U.S. 12th-graders do not view “regular marijuana use” as harmful. This is up from nearly 56% who viewed such use as harmful last year.

    Teens’ attitudes toward marijuana have changed significantly in just the past decade. In 1993 around 70% of U.S. 12th-graders considered regular marijuana use harmful.

    Teen use of marijuana has also increased significantly in the past two decades. The NIH found that 6.5% of U.S. 12th-graders smoke marijuana daily. That is up only slightly from the 6% who were found to be daily smokers one decade ago, but more than double the 2.4% of 12-graders who smoked marijuana daily in 1993.

    The NIH also found that over one-third of U.S. 12th-graders had smoked marijuana within the past year.

    “This is not just an issue of increased daily use,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “It is important to remember that over the past two decades, levels of THC – the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana – have gone up a great deal, from 3.75 percent in 1995 to an average of 15 percent in today’s marijuana cigarettes. Daily use today can have stronger effects on a developing teen brain than it did 10 or 20 years ago.”

    The NIH’s “Monitoring the Future” survey measured drug use and attitudes toward drug use among 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders. In addition to the marijuana findings, the survey also found that the use of synthetic marijuana, inhalants, bath salts, salvia, MDMA, and cigarettes is down or very low among high schoolers. Cocaine and heroin use saw now significant change from last year’s survey, though both drugs are at historic lows for U.S. high schoolers.

  • Majority of Americans Now Want to Legalize Marijuana

    For the first time in history, a majority of Americans believe the use of marijuana should be legal in the U.S. This finding comes from Gallup, which revealed today the results of a new U.S. poll about the legalization of the drug.

    According to the Gallup survey, 58% of Americans polled answered “yes” when asked whether they think marijuana use should be made legal. This is a fairly significant spike in acceptance from just one year ago, when 48% of Americans said that marijuana should be legal. It is also a huge increase from one decade ago, when just 34% of Americans polled by Gallup thought the drug should be legalized.

    The shift in opinion has not come from either end of the political spectrum, but from the middle. While Republican and Democrat opinions on legalization rose only slightly (35% and 65% in favor, respectively), independents have rapidly shifted their stance on the legalization of marijuana in the U.S. Of the Independent-identified Americans polled by Gallup, 62% now believe marijuana should be made legal. This is up 12% from 2012, when just 50% of independents expressed that opinion.

    This latest poll comes nearly one year after both Colorado and Washington citizens voted-in laws legalizing limited recreational marijuana use in their states. Similar ballot initiatives are expected in states throughout the U.S. The Obama administration’s relatively hands-off approach to medical marijuana has encouraged the industry in recent years, and Gallup

    Gallup has been asking Americans whether marijuana should be legalized since 1969. That first year, Americans overwhelmingly rejected the proposition, with only 12% saying the drug should be made legal. Opinion rapidly shifted in favor of legalization in the years that followed, with 28% supporting legalization in 1977. This figure remained fairly steady throughout the 80s and mid-90s, until it began rising rapidly again in the late 90s.

    Another Gallup poll this year showed that a full 38% of Americans admitted to having tried marijuana at least once. That figure has also begun rising since the mid-90s, when it stood at around 34% and had for a decade.

  • Tommy Chong Touts the Economic Benefits of Weed

    Tommy Chong, along with co-star Ceech Marin, became famous in the 70s and 80s for the Ceeech & Chong movies, which satirized and glorified many aspects of hippie and stoner culture. Now, Chong is, unsurprisingly, advocating for the legalization of marijuana.

    According to an Associated Press report, Chong recently stated that marijuana could be the cure for the ailing U.S. economy. Chong stated that legalizing and taxing marijuana and hemp could provide enough revenue to “save the world.” From the AP:

    “Look at the situation we’re in now. Sequesters. Cuts. Everything cut across the board. Now, the government is tapped into the biggest cash crop in the world,” Chong said. “There’s little manufacturing cost. You don’t have to do anything except watch it grow and get a couple of hippies to cut it and then put it in a bag.”

    Chong, who revealed last year that he battled prostate cancer, still tours occasionally with Marin. He is also using social media to promote marijuana legalization. His Facebook and Twitter accounts are filled with statements such as these:

  • Marijuana Tax, Legalization Being Considered in Maine

    A bill in the Maine legislature that would legalize and tax marijuana has gained some considerable support.

    According to a report from the Bangor Daily News, the legislation now has 35 co-sponsors.

    The bill, LD 1229 or “An Act to Regulate and Tax Marijuana,” would regulate marijuana in the state of Maine the way alcohol is regulated. Having up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana and growing up to six plants in a locked area would be legal under the bill. Smoking marijuana in public would still be illegal, and a tax of $50 per ounce would also be imposed. The bill tasks the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services with licensing retail stores and licensing the cultivation, manufacturing, and testing of marijuana in the state.

    Lawmakers are touting the bill as a tax boon for the state, as well as a way to limit government prohibitions. The bill has been assigned to the Maine legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safetey Committee – the same committee that shot down a similar bill during last year’s legislative session.

    Maine has allowed the medical use of marijuana since 1999.

  • Branson Inquires About A Joint At The White House

    Richard Branson will have to cross President Obama and the White House off of his short list of places to score some good weed. According to the Business savvy celebrity, they don’t keep any on hand. Branson attended a dinner for British Prime Minister, David Cameron at the White House on Wednesday and commented on the event on Thursday to an anxious crowd outside an Atlantic office in Washington.

    Branson made an appearance at the Atlantic alongside Atlantic’s Washington Editor-At-Large Steve Clemons and Ethan Nadelmann, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance to promote a panel discussion titled, “Benchmarching the War on Drugs”. Though he only jokes about asking for a joint at the White House, he is an avid marijuana smoker and hopes to play an instrumental role in legalizing the plant.

    The trio’s presentation on marijuana speaks to common sense aspect of legalizing the plant, addressing issues like the non-toxic nature of the drug and prison overcrowding. They present some interesting arguments for legalization and they specifically mention the initiative in Latin America to decriminalize marijuana.

    Here’s a video of the Atlantic event featuring Branson:


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