In April, a Field poll asked California voters if they would support legalizing marijuana in order to tax it, in order to help our bankrupt state. Most folks said yes. “In that survey, 56 percent of the respondents said they supported “legalizing marijuana for recreational use and tax(ing) its proceeds,” according to the Capitol Weekly.
Well, for some damn reason Republican pollster Adam Probolsky decided to conduct his own poll – in conjunction with the Capitol Weekly, but this time he did not mention taxing marijuana, nor did he mention our state budget.
Despite Probolsky’s attempts to shift the poll, almost half of those polled said they would not be against legalizing marijuana. Only 52% responded to Probolsky’s leading question by saying they were against legalizing marijuana.
Not sure why the Republicans are so dead set against legalizing marijuana, but a thought comes to mind. Their legislators get a lot of money from the state prison guard’s union. Why would they want to legalize marijuana and risk emptying the overcrowded state prisons?
And there is another wrinkle. Recently I attended a California GOP gubernatorial debate where California State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said that he would not only send the National Guard to the Mexican border, he would also send the California Highway Patrol. Clearly he wants to continue the war on drugs – a war that, like our conflicts in the Middle East, we are losing.
Republicans want to keep our prisons full, preferably with young minorities, and they want to keep fighting the losing effort that is our drug war. So of course Probolsky is going to conduct polls that are designed to elicit a response favorable to the GOP’s position. Fine – but I am calling Bullsh*t on this poll!
For the record, I don’t think folks should use marijuana. It can induce mental problems in those who are already prone to such behavior. But I think it is assinine to continue a drug war we lost a long time ago. We can continue to ban drug use in the workplace and behind the wheel, but if folks want to do this in their own time, what is the harm in that?
California voters already made medical marijuana legal years ago, when they overwhelmingly passed Prop. 215. You can learn more about the Campaign to Tax and Regulate marijuana by clicking here.
Careful Art, you’re sounding like a tenther. The Federal Government already has a say in marijuana according to the “Commerce Clause” that’s so big you can drive an aircraft carrier through it.
Only wacky tenth amendment believers think the state has any say.
the prison guard union has given MUCH more money to Democrats than republicans, so it would seem your theory about Reeps being beholden to that particular public employee union is WAY off base.
The stigma attached to marijuana scares many people who use smoking pipes to hide their use. The main problem inhibiting legalization is that people who smoke a glass pipe discriminated against and are therefore not considered serious or mature. The public needs to make its choices are known and to make sure our voices are heard. With the economy in shambles this is the best chance to change the law. Send a letter, send an email make a phone call, one hand written Letter is considered to be the voice of thousands of people who did not take the time to write so write your representative today.
Sunflowerpipes.com