America has been close to legalizing marijuana many times during the last few decades, but never as close to mass acceptance of the
drug as the nation is today. Since the mid 1900s, the United States has seen over the top funding of the war on drugs to a conclusion that the war had little
effect on marijuana use.
Now, for the first time, marijuana legalization is winning mainstream
support in public opinion surveys and a drug used by about 6 percent of
Americans and one-third of the nation’s high school seniors is starting to
shake its counterculture reputation. It is winning acceptance even from some
police, prosecutors, and politicians.
But is this time really different? Why is the current
campaign for legalization resonating when previous ones did not?
The leap toward legality is caused by the financial worry of income low states, the Internet-driven uprising in how citizens learn about marijuana and its
medicinal uses, and a rising libertarian feeling in which many liberals and
conservatives alike have grown skeptical of government’s role in telling
citizens how to medicate themselves. Americans have grown more libertarian in their views on their personal freedoms, the most anti marijuana generation has passed on, and
people across the ideological spectrum have grown frustrated with the cost,
both financial and social, of decades of arrests and imprisonments.The legalization
drive is underway mainly in states facing tough budget problems.
You've brought up some good points here, a couple links would've helped though. Anyways, I agree that more people are starting to accept marijuana and moving towards legalizing it mostly because there haven't been any known horrible side effects. And let's be honest, plenty of people, including adults, have been doing it behind closed doors for years.
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about different states budgets and how marijuana may factor into that though. I wonder how much they'd sell marijuana for to the public if it were legalized?