Poll suggests its smart politics for Obama to let Washington and Color

[loves420]

Poll suggests its smart politics for Obama to let Washington and Colorado legalize pot

 

Published: Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 9:34 AM Updated: Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 9:34 AM

 

http://media.oregonlive.com/avatars/390.png By Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian

 

A new Gallup Poll says that 64 percent of Americans think the federal government shouldn't use federal anti-drug laws to prevent states like Washington and Colorado from proceeding with marijuana legalization.

 

The new finding shows a much greater level of support for a federal hands-off policy than those who actually support legalizing the drug. According to Gallup, even 43 percent of those who oppose legalizing pot are against the feds acting against state legalization.

 

Washington and Colorado in November became the first states to legalize marijuana, both as the result of voter initiatives.

 

Now, the states are setting up regulatory schemes to allow the commercial production and sales of marijuana -- and the big question is whether the Obama administration will allow Washington and Colorado to proceed.

 

Interestingly, the Obama administration already made one big policy change from 2010, when a similar legalization measure was on the California ballot. That year, Attorney General Eric Holder warned voters less than a month before the election that the federal government would "vigorously enforce the (Controlled Substances Act) against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law."

 

The California measure was defeated, but no such statement was forthcoming before the 2012 elections.

 

As Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that heavily backed the Washington initiative, noted in an interesting video, the Obama administration

in the Colorado and Washington fights.

 

For one thing, Colorado was a swing state, and the Obama campaign knew that marijuana legalization was particularly popular among the younger voters it was wooing. And, in fact, the pot measure in Colorado received more votes than Obama (who did wind up winning the state).

 

Nadelmann said he's heard that President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have both had recent conversations suggesting that they are interested in letting the states proceed with their experiment.

 

The new Gallup poll certainly adds further political incentive for the Obama administration to allow Washington and Colorado to go ahead, albeit perhaps with some federal restrictions.

 

The poll shows Democrats strongly favoring legalization with independent voters narrowly divided. Even a third of Republican voters now favor legalization -- and you have to think support will grow as younger voters become a bigger part of the electorate.

 

--Jeff Mapes

 

http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/inde...l#incart_river

[Son Of Abraham]

Good news!

 

I'm really glad that CO was one of these states, because it does make it hard for the fed to muscle in. Both parties know that it's a swinger, so everyone is going to think twice before doing anything dumb. In, for example, California, it would have been a very different dynamic!