Survey: Support for legal weed drops 7 points in the past year

[RetroGrow]

So it looks like support for legalization is waning, according to the latest poll, according to this article:

"National support for legalized marijuana has slipped by seven percentage points in the past year, from 51 percent in 2013 to 44 percent today, according to the Public Religion Research Institute.

PRRI asked 4,500 Americans about the intensity of their support for or opposition to legalizing marijuana. The year-over-year drop in overall support was concentrated among those who favored marijuana legalization last year, but not strongly. Opposition increased greatest among those who strongly opposed legal marijuana.
These numbers suggest that people who only slightly supported legalization last year have changed their minds, and that people who slightly opposed legalization now feel more strongly about it. They could augur difficulties for marijuana legalization measures on the ballot this year in Alaska and Oregon. An August PPP poll found Alaska voters closely divided on the marijuana question, with 44 percent in favor of legalization and 49 percent opposed. A June SurveyUSA poll found more robust support for legalization in Oregon, at 51 to 41.

An October 2013 Gallup poll found strong support for marijuana legalization nationally, with 58 percent in favor and 39 percent opposed. The PRRI and Gallup numbers are not directly comparable, since the questions were worded differently in each survey. Moreover, survey responses on marijuana legalization tend to be highly sensitive to particular question wording.

Still, the year-over-year drop within this one poll is significant and well outside the poll's 1.8 point margin of error. If other surveys show similar findings, it could mean that Americans generally don't like the news coming out of Colorado and Washington - even if that news has been largely positive.

Since this came from a religious group, I have to question their numbers. More polls are needed to get an accurate reading, IMO.

There is a chart on the site:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...r-legal-weed-drops-7-points-in-the-past-year/

 

[dddaver]

I think you have to question ALL these numbers put out, even by respected national media. And even most especially numbers put out by them. You just can't believe any of it. Such as that thing about mj causing brain damage in teens that has been so media hyped.

Just yesterday Yahoo news had a headline "Does marijuana cause brain damage?. I clicked on it and it was a "study" published by the Scientific American so I figured it had to be a good study.

I first saw that the "study" only had a sample size of 20 people? How is that even at all statistically relevant to draw any conclusion from? Then I read that although they found brain abnormalities in some of their subjects that had smoked weed they said that was decided to be possibly related issue somehow, they had no idea why, but not causal.

Then the irresponsible media jumps all over that as a conclusion. It isn't. The "study" is flawed anyway. I blame the biased editors for letting totally misleading stories like that through and be published.

Then the unsuspecting public reads trash like that one and the story the op posted and has no idea what to think.

I do believe in our constitutionally protected rights of free speech here in the US. But that was designed mostly to protect it's citizens from the gov't propaganda. Big media has a responsibility and it has most certainly been badly abused.

 

[Hank Hemp]

I have always been pessimistic about even medical cannabis here in upper Dixie. Always will be till most counties have liquor sales, yes I said liquor sales.

 

[Photosynthesis]

So I am to believe numbers from a religious group?

I think they should stick to trying to prove God exists, and brainwashing new members.

 

[Tudo]

If polls were accurate then right now Dr Ron Paul would be president, ALL the troops would be back in the US, cannabis would be legal and the US would be starting to point in the right direction economically after so many years of going in the wrong direction.

There's way too much corruption and deceit to believe in these polls.

Unfortunately.

 

[Tudo]

I have always been pessimistic about even medical cannabis here in upper Dixie. .

That's because Dixie ain't Dixie. Dixie is the Occupied South.

 

[Agaricus]

I bet it's that "Oh the Poor Children" propaganda, using the so-called studies of teens' IQs. That seems to be the biggie lately. Of course there are the claims about the horrors of legalization in CO and WA but those are very easily debunked. At least by those who don't want to be confused by the facts.

Legalization ain't gonna be a walk in the park, there's a lot of money being made by a lot of people by keeping it illegal. Rational arguments aren't that much of a factor. Crackpot groups like Sabet's "Smart Approaches" anti-legalization cabal are breaking out lots of the old speculative lies and half-truths, tagging them with feel-good words like "smart" and "study" and pushing quotes from self-proclaimed authorities.