XPost: alt.california, sac.politics, alt.politics.democrats   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: none@gmail.com   
      
   LOS ANGELES — In California, cradle of the marijuana movement, a new poll   
   has found a majority of voters do not support legalization, even as they   
   overwhelmingly back medicinal use for “patients with terminal and   
   debilitating conditions.”   
      
   Eighty percent of voters support doctor-recommended use for severe   
   illness, a University of Southern California Dornsife/Los Angeles Times   
   poll found. But only 46 percent of respondents said they support   
   legalization of “general or recreational use by adults,” while 50 percent   
   oppose it. Those against using pot were more adamant in their position,   
   with 42 percent saying they felt “strongly” about it, compared with 33   
   percent for proponents.   
      
   The survey found opinions have not measurably changed since voters   
   defeated the legalization initiative Proposition 19 in 2010 by similar   
   margins. And oddly, given the state’s long role as the leader of marijuana   
   decriminalization and cultivation, support for sanctioning its general use   
   here appears to lag behind the sentiment in the rest of the country.   
      
   A Gallup poll in October showed support nationwide for legalizing pot at   
   50 percent for the first time since the pollster began asking the question   
   in 1969, when only 12 percent of Americans supported it.   
      
   A Rasmussen Reports survey this month found 56 percent of voters favored   
   authorizing and regulating cannabis sales like alcohol and tobacco sales.   
   With this uptick in popularity, marijuana advocates succeeded in getting   
   initiatives qualified for the upcoming November ballot in Colorado and   
   Washington, while they failed in California.   
      
   Concern over medical marijuana   
      
   Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC,   
   said the California numbers suggest voters are concerned about the way the   
   Compassionate Use Act, passed in 1996 to permit medical marijuana, has   
   been carried out.   
      
   “They like the idea of providing marijuana for medical use, but they’re   
   worried that the law is being abused,” he said.   
      
   Cities and counties have been struggling with how to rein in the   
   proliferation of pot shops.   
      
   Some law enforcement agencies have targeted them, while some have been   
   more lenient. Some cities have tried to ban them, and courts have issued   
   conflicting opinions up and down the state as to whether, where and how   
   they can operate.   
      
   The federal government, which does not recognize medical marijuana as   
   legal, has been shutting down dispensaries and growers, while threatening   
   landlords who rent to them and cities that give them official sanction by   
   granting permits.   
      
   Dale Gieringer, coordinator of the state chapter of the National   
   Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said that the state needs   
   to regulate its medical marijuana distribution better before the public   
   will go for wider use.   
      
   His organization and Americans for Safe Access, among other marijuana   
   groups, are backing a state Assembly bill that would create a new state   
   board to enact and enforce statewide regulations on growing, transporting   
   and selling marijuana.   
      
   It would require all dispensaries to register with the state, and allow   
   cities and counties to tax sales.   
      
   “Voters are hesitant to liberalize the marijuana laws any further until   
   the chaos of the current system is worked out,” he said.   
      
   Bay Area, independents buck trend   
      
   The new poll of about 1,000 registered voters taken May 17-21 statewide   
   showed many more voters used marijuana “recreationally” than the 3 percent   
   who said they used it as medicine. Just less than 38 perccent said they   
   had indulged in pot for pleasure at least once in their lives — and 9   
   percent had in the last year.   
      
   The questioners did not ask whether those who used the drug recreationally   
   acquired it on the street or with a doctor’s recommendation from a   
   dispensary.   
      
   The poll margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.   
      
   The San Francisco Bay Area was the only region of the state where a   
   majority — 55 percent — favors legalization, compared with 41 percent in   
   Southern California and 49 percent of voters in Los Angeles County. There   
   was a pronounced drop-off with age, with 58 percent support among those in   
   their late teens and twenties, slowly slipping to 51 percent for those   
   between 50 and 64, and plummeting to 28 percent of voters older than 64.   
      
   As for political affiliation, only 28 percent of Republicans and 50   
   percent of Democrats liked the idea of legalization. Independents were the   
   ones to give it a boost, with 60 percent favoring it.   
      
   “It’s the decline-to-state voters, those kind of independent ones that   
   don’t align with either party, who are the ones really pushing this,” said   
   Dave Kanevsky, research director for American Viewpoint, a Republican   
   polling firm, which conducted the poll jointly with the Democratic firm   
   Greenberg Quinlan Rosner.   
      
   One of those independents surveyed was Daniel, a 41-year-old who works in   
   business development in the Inland Empire and did not want to give his   
   last name.   
      
   “It’s no worse than alcohol or tobacco that are currently legalized,” he   
   said. “People should absolutely not be persecuted for it.”   
      
   He said he “partied” with marijuana in his youth and grew out of it as an   
   adult. “I don’t feel it’s a gateway drug,” he said.   
      
   In Oregon   
      
   While growing and using marijuana in general isn’t legal here, voters did   
   approve the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, legalizing its use for medical   
   purposes, in November 1998.   
      
   https://www.bendbulletin.com/nation/california-voters-don-t-favor-   
   legalizing-marijuana-poll-finds/article_52078ba8-c1ed-5b9b-8e31-   
   f40268487816.html   
      
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