Our current Attorney General claims that marijuana is a dangerous gateway drug, and he wants the federal government to continue fighting it -- even in states that have legalized it in small amounts. And it looks like the Republican-dominated Congress agrees with him. There is no effort to repeal federal laws against marijuana, and even though a bill has been introduced by Sen. Schumer to keep the federal government from interfering with legal marijuana states, there doesn't seem to be enough support for it to pass.
This puts our federal government once more in opposition with the wishes of a significant majority of Americans. The American public wants marijuana legalized by a 30 point margin, says it is not a gateway drug by a 30 point margin, and would support a bill protecting states with legal marijuana by a 54 point margin.
Those are some pretty big numbers. It is time for our politicians to respect the wishes of the public. Marijuana is NOT a dangerous or gateway drug, and it should be legalized for personal use. Our current laws make criminals of too many honest and hard-working people, and they need to be changed. We should also be taking advantage of the taxes legal marijuana would bring, and the thousands of new jobs it would create.
There is simply no legitimate reason for not legalizing marijuana.
The charts above use information found in a recent Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between April 20th and 24th of a random national sample of 1,193 voters, with a 3.4 point margin of error.