A new poll suggests Canada may have reached the tipping point and a 66-per-cent majority favours legalizing marijuana.

Hallelujah! Finally we might get a sensible public policy discussion in this country about what to do about a relatively benign substance that has been demonized and outlawed for a century yet is as readily available in schoolyards as cigarettes.

The prohibition and a 40-year-long “War on Drugs” have led to pot being more widely accessible, taxpayers considerably poorer, gangs richer and thousands upon thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens branded “criminal.”

Another 50,000 or so Canadians are busted every year for possession; throw in 20,000 or so traffickers and producers and this so-called war is costing us as much as $400 million annually in law enforcement, court and corrections.

Bearing in mind a million dollars a year buys roughly 12 new cops, 14 teachers or public health nurses, ask yourself: Couldn’t all that money be better spent?

The federal Liberal party obviously thinks so – 77 per cent of delegates at the weekend convention voted to legalize the herb, echoing the Senate special committee on illegal drugs (chaired by a Conservative), which 10 years ago urged the government to free the weed. Four decades ago, the LeDain Commission similarly called for an end to the criminal prohibition of cannabis.

Across the country today, more and more people agree.

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In addition to “6 Awesome Pro-Marijuana Ads” Rigo14 has sent me another image featuring Kid Cudi.

Check out his site here.

With 14 states and the District of Colombia allowing the legal medical use of marijuana, acceptance of the issue is steadily growing in America. A new poll shows that 57 percent of Floridians support legalization of medical marijuana as buzz grows that the issue could be placed on the ballot as soon as 2012.

Bob Norman reports that the poll was conducted by Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates, a Republican firm that worked with Rick Scott’s gubernatorial campaign. The pollsters asked point blank: “If there was a Constitutional Amendment on the statewide ballot to legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes only when prescribed by a practicing physician and the election were held today, would you vote YES to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes or NO to stop it?”

57 percent said they would vote YES (roughly 41 percent said they definitely would, and about 17 percent said they probably would). A recent ABC News poll found that across the nation 81 percent of voters support medical marijuana. It’s possible that this poll may even be conservative in estimating support.

Norman reports that such an amendment could come to the ballot in 2012, but 60 percent of voters would need to check yes for such a measure to pass.

While there wasn’t a big statistical difference based on gender and race, slightly more woman were supportive of the measure than men. 59 percent of white voters and 58 percent of Hispanics would vote yes, while only 55 percent of black voters would.

Voters in Miami would support the measure at 58 percent, but West Palm has the biggest munchies for medical marijuana with 73 percent. 79 percent of voters 18 to 24 would vote yes, while even a majority of voters 65 and up are supportive of the measure with 53 percent support.

Source

More than half of British Columbians support the legalization of marijuana, but the prairie provinces are even more pot-friendly, according to a new poll.

In the latest Angus Reid Public Opinion poll on drugs, 50 per cent of Canadians said they want to see marijuana legalized, while 44 per cent oppose decriminalization.

People in Manitoba and Saskatchewan were most likely to want legal pot, with 61 per cent of those polled expressing their support. Fifty-four per cent of British Columbians surveyed said they want to see marijuana legalized.

Albertans were the least likely to support legalizing pot, with only 45 per cent in support.

Only 33 per cent of Canadians said they want to toss the decriminalization legislation introduced by the previous Liberal government. But the majority said they support the federal government’s proposal for a national anti-drug strategy and mandatory minimum jail sentences for grow operators and drug dealers.

Despite the strong support countrywide for legal marijuana, about 90 per cent of Canadians opposed legalizing harder drugs like ecstasy, heroin and cocaine.

Still, about half of respondents said they disagreed with the Conservative government’s efforts to end harm reduction programs like supervised injection sites and needle-exchange programs.

People in B.C. were much more likely than most Canadians to say that the country has a serious drug abuse problem affecting the entire country, with 46 per cent agreeing compared to a national average of 37 per cent.

The results of the latest poll are consistent with similar surveys conducted in April of this year and in May 2008.

The latest survey was conducted online and polled 1,000 randomly selected people. The margin of error is 3.1 per cent.

What do you think? Should marijuana be legal?

Source

Are the voters in Massachusetts ready to embrace marijuana legalization in 2012? Analysis of the vote on local marijuana legalization advisory ballot question strongly points to yes.

Massachusetts allows for citizens to place non-binding local “public policy questions” on the ballot. This year, in several precincts, voters weighed in on whether their local representatives should “vote in favor of legislation that would allow the state to regulate and tax marijuana in the same manner as alcohol.” On Tuesday, over 150,000 votes were cast on the issue across the state in districts containing around 8.5 percent of the total vote.

In the districts where it was on the ballot, the advisory question passed with an impressive 61 percent of the vote, but these districts were on the whole slightly more liberal and pro-reform than the rest of the state. To determine how these results might translate to a statewide marijuana legalization ballot question, I used two different metrics. Continue reading for the results.

2010 marijuana legalization advisory vote compared to 2008 decriminalization ballot initiative

First, I compared the results in these precincts for legalization to the 2008 results for Question 2, a sweeping marijuana decriminalization measure, which passed overwhelmingly statewide, 65 percent to 35 percent. These districts voted 70 percent for decriminalization, slightly higher than the state average. Assuming this relative level of support held true for legalization, you would expect that if the marijuana legalization question were on the ballot statewide, it would have passed this year with a vote of Yes 56.6 percent to No 44.4 percent.

2010 gubernatorial results compared to local marijuana legalization advisory question

The second metric I used was the total vote in these districts in the 2010 governor’s race–for both incumbent Democrat Deval Patrick and Green Party candidate Jill Stein–to find out how much more “liberal” these districts are than the rest of the state. There is a strong but imperfect correlation between voting for more liberal candidates and voters’ relative support for marijuana reform. In these districts, Patrick and Stein took 58 percent of the vote, compared to only 50 percent of the vote statewide. Using this liberal metric, I project marijuana legalization would have passed statewide with roughly a vote of Yes 53.1 percent to No 46.9 percent.

A small majority of Massachusetts voters likely support legalization

This analysis leads me to believe that a small majority of the individuals who turned out to vote this year in Massachusetts supported legalizing and regulating cannabis in the same way the state does alcohol. That is a good sign for marijuana reform given that midterm elections tend to have much lower turnouts among young voters–who are, in general, more supportive of legalization–and this midterm in particular had a higher than normal turnout among older conservatives, who tend not to support marijuana reform. For these reasons, the 2012 electorate is almost assured to been even more supportive of legalization than the 2010 electorate.

This analysis of the election results, combined with other factors, suggests Massachusetts is a strong candidate for becoming one of the first states to embrace legalization. Massachusetts is a very liberal state, has a huge number of colleges, is demographically relatively young, and contains an existing grassroots marijuana advocacy community. In 2008, the state passed Question 2, a strong marijuana decriminalization initiative, by 30 points. Most importantly, Massachusetts allows for binding statewide citizen-sponsored initiatives. There is strong evidence that if a well-crafted marijuana legalization initiative makes in onto the ballot in 2012, it could pass.

*There are several variables that could cause error in this analysis or make it not exactly apply to a binding statewide initiative. Imperfect Metrics: There is no prefect metric against which to compare the results. I think comparing them to the vote on decriminalization is pretty good, but it is possible more conservative parts of the state were only mildly less supportive than these districts of decriminalization, but would be dramatically less supportive of legalization. Dropoff: For obvious reasons, non-bidding advisory questions are not a top priority for voters, and around 10 percent of voters do not enter a preference. It is possible supporters are more likely to vote Yes, but those weakly opposed are more incline to just skip them, resulting in a slight overstatement of support. Cold Feet: There is probably some small percentage of voters who are fine sending the message they support legalization in general, but might change their minds when their vote might actually make it happen. Actual Ballot Language: Similarly, the actual language of a binding ballot initiative is very important, unlike an advisory question. It is probably impossible to craft a ballot initiative that every supporter of legalization would vote for. The specific design of provisions could cause some people to vote No even if they support the concept.

Source

The Government has legalised medicinal cannabis, but many multiple sclerosis patients allowed to use the commercial form of the drug will have difficulty paying for it, says Multiple Sclerosis Society national director Rosie Gallagher.

“It’s something we’ve been watching for a while, and it’s exciting to hear that its been approved we’d just love to see it subsidised.”

British drug manufacturer, GW Pharmaceuticals has been given approval to distribute cannabis extracts in New Zealand as a branded drug, Sativex.

In its application to Medsafe, GW Pharmaceuticals said that in therapeutic doses, Sativex sprayed under the tongue may produce side-effects “interpreted as a euphoria or cannabis-like high”.

But Government drug funding agency Pharmac said nobody had applied to have the drug subsidised.

Ms Gallagher said patients would normally expect the manufacturer to approach Pharmac, as the maker had key information on aspects such as the medicine’s efficacy in clinical trials.

“We’d expect the drugs company to make the initial contact, but we’d be quite happy to back them up,” she said.

“There’s so little available in the way of MS medications, and they’re so very expensive that we’re happy to see anything new that comes on the market that has been shown to improve symptoms.”

The main MS drugs – hugely expensive pharmaceuticals such as interferon beta – tended to be aimed at reducing the rate at which patients suffered relapses, but the Sativex cannabis extracts approved for the relief of spasticity were slightly different.

Two cannabis extracts in the drug can help MS patients control continuous or repeated muscle contractions, spasticity which interferes with movements, speech, and walking and may include severe, painful, and uncontrollable muscle spasms.

Even before the medicinal cannabis was legalised, four patients were given special approvals by the Health Minister to use Sativex, two for chronic pain conditions, one for multiple sclerosis and one for muscle spasm, chronic pain and nausea.

Ms Gallagher said there were 4000 people diagnosed with MS in New Zealand – usually diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 40 years – and spasticity was one of the most common symptoms.

A cannabis campaigner, NORML spokesman Chris Fowlie, of Auckland, told NZPA that a small spray which could last one week to a month – depending on the dosage rates for an individual patient – cost about $300, and some patients found they could buy illicit cannabis at a lower cost.

“But growing their own or buying it illegally brings significant risks.”

Source

From Alternet.org

If the upcoming pot legalization ballot in California were decided by hemp farmers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, it would be no contest. For purely economic reasons, if you told the Constitutional Convention in 1787 that the nation they were founding would someday make hemp illegal, they would have laughed you out of the room.

If California legalizes pot, it will save the state millions in avoided legal and imprisonment costs, while raising it millions in taxes.

But with legal marijuana will come legal hemp. That will open up the Golden State to a multi-billion-dollar crop that has been a staple of human agriculture for thousands of years, and that could save the farms of thousands of American families.

Hemp is currently legal in Canada, Germany, Holland, Rumania, Japan and China, among many other countries. It is illegal here largely because of marijuana prohibition. Ask any sane person why HEMP is illegal and you will get a blank stare.

For paper, clothing, textiles, rope, sails, fuel and food, hemp has been a core crop since the founding of ancient China, India and Arabia. Easy to plant, grow and harvest, farmers—including Washington and Jefferson—have sung its praises throughout history. It was the number one or two cash crop on virtually all American family farms from the colonial era on.

If the American Farm Bureaus and Farmers Unions were truly serving their constituents, they would be pushing hard for legal pot so that its far more profitable (but essentially unsmokable) cousin could again bring prosperity to American farmers.

Hemp may be the real reason marijuana is illegal. In the 1930s, the Hearst family set out to protect their vast timber holdings, much of which were being used to make paper.

But hemp produces five times as much paper per acre as do trees. Hemp paper is stronger and easier to make. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper, and one of Benjamin Franklin’s primary paper mills ran on it.

But the Hearsts used their newspapers to incite enough reefer madness to get marijuana banned in 1937. With that ban came complex laws that killed off the growing of hemp. The ecological devastation that’s followed with continued use of trees for paper has been epic.

As canvass, hemp has long been essential for shoes, clothing, rope, sails, textiles, building materials and much more. It’s far more durable than cotton and ecologically benign compared to virtually any other industrial crop. Hemp needs no pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers, and can grow well without much water.

Hemp’s use for rope was so critical to the US war effort that in the 1940s, the US military the bans and blanketed virtually the entire state of Kansas with it.The War Department’s “Hemp for Victory” is the core film on how to grow it.

Henry Ford produced an entire automobile made from hemp fiber stiffened with resin. Like the original diesel engine, it was designed to run on hemp fuel.

Powder from hemp seeds is extremely high in protein and in omega-3 oils, now mostly gotten from fish.

Hemp could be key to the future of bio-fuels. Growing food crops like corn and soy to make ethanol and diesel is extremely inefficient and expensive. They force hungry people to compete with cars for fuel.

Fast-growing hemp stalks and leaves are well-suited for cheap fermentation into ethanol, and for compression into fuel pellets. The seeds produce a bio-diesel that’s far superior to what comes from soy.

Alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceutical and law enforcement/prison-industrial industries — not to mention entrenched narco-terrorists — are leading the fight against legal pot.

But the industrial production of hemp would also transform the industries for paper, cotton, textiles, plastics, fuel, fish oil and more. The economic, ecological and employment benefits would be incalculable.

When Californians go to the polls November 2, they may end a marijuana prohibition that’s had devastating impacts on state’s public health and civil liberties, while costing it billions.

They’ll also decide whether California — and, ultimately, the US — will resume production of history’s most powerful, versatile and profitable industrial crop, one ultimately certain to be worth far more than marijuana.

One that was essential to this nation’s founding — and that could be central to its economic, ecological and agricultural revival.

Source.

From StopTheDrugWar.com

Proposition 19, California’s tax and regulate pot initiative, has received yet another large late donation, this one from Progressive Insurance founder Peter Lewis, who announced Saturday he was donating $209,500 for the effort.

“I’m supporting the campaign because I support common-sense reform of the nation’s drug laws,” Lewis said Saturday in a statement. “I admire the effort, energy and commitment of the people involved in the campaign, and want to help them get their message out to the voters.”

The initiative would legalize the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana for adults 21 and older. They could also grow up to 25 square feet of pot and possess the harvest. Cities and counties could permit, tax, and regulate commercial marijuana sales and cultivation.

Prop 19 holds a four-point lead in the Talking Points Memo Polltracker average of the 13 polls taken on it so far this year. Prop 19 has 47.4% in the poll average to 43.2% against, with less than 10% undecided. Only three of the 13 polls have shown it losing, but with support under 50%, voter turnout and the undecideds will be critical in achieving victory

The closeness of the race has inspired a surge of late donations to the campaign, including $170,000 from Facebook co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Sean Parker and $75,000 from Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap heir David Bronner and $25,000 from Washington, DC’s Capitol Hemp earlier this month. Since then, in addition to the funds from Lewis, the Prop 19 campaign committee has also received $19,000 in $1,000 or more contributions.

By contrast, the opposition Public Safety First campaign, which had only $54,000 in the bank at the end of September, has received only one large donation, for $25,000, since then. Still, neither campaign has the funds for a last minute TV ad blitz, and for Prop 19, it’s now all about beating the bushes for voters and getting them to the polls, the earlier the better. Early voting got underway this week.

Lewis actually gave only $59,500 to the Prop 19 campaign committee, with the other $159,005 going to the Drug Policy Action Committee, an independent entity controlled by the Drug Policy Alliance. While that committee is spending money on get out the vote efforts, it also donated $35,000 to the Prop 19 campaign committee Thursday.

Lewis, whose net worth Forbes pegs at $1.1 billion, has given millions to the drug reform cause in the past decade and a half. In 1996, Lewis donated $500,000 for Prop 215, California’s ground-breaking medical marijuana initiative. He gave another $1 million to Prop 36 in 2000, which diverted thousands of nonviolent drug offenders from prison to treatment. And he has donated $2-3 million a year to fund other drug reform efforts.

Source.

Click to enlarge

Someday this may be a reality. We can always hope. Found it on reddit.

reddit.com/r/trees

Quirky social-news site Reddit always seemed an unusual acquisition for Manhattan media giant Conde Nast, and it’s never been more evident: asked by Conde Nast overlords to stop running advertisements on behalf of advocates of California’s Proposition 19, which supports the legalization of marijuana, Reddit decided they’d do it anyway.

Because Conde Nast said its main concern was obtaining revenue from those controversial advocacy groups, Reddit’s solution was that they would simply run the ads for free.

“This was a decision made at the highest levels of Conde Nast,” an announcement from Reddit read. “Reddit itself strongly disagrees with it and, frankly, thinks it’s ridiculous that we’re turning away advertising money…We’re trying to convince Corporate that they’re making the wrong decision here, and we encourage the community to create a petition, so that your anger is organized in a way that will produce results.”

Conde Nast’s official response: “As a corporation, Conde Nast does not want to benefit financially from this particular issue.”

Reddit’s users, many of whom are outspoken marijuana legalization advocates themselves (Reddit operates a sub-site called “Trees,” devoted to weed-related news), had been up in arms over the decision. Dozens of users said that they would be instituting ad-blocking software in protest. Recently, pro-legalization ads have been making headlines because of the revelation that while Google’s policies are relatively liberal, Facebook will ban ads that contain images of “drug paraphernalia, or tobacco.” The iconic green cannabis leaf doesn’t make the cut.

This is the second time in fewer than two months that Reddit has vocally expressed dissatisfaction with its Conde Nast parentage. Last month, the site put out a call for user donations to help make changes, claiming that Conde Nast’s budget allotments to Reddit wouldn’t cover them.

Article via CNET

Very interesting video, watch it until the end.

A new campaign committee supporting California’s initiative to legalize marijuana for recreational use is being backed by a wealthy entrepreneur in other forms of recreation – sex toys and porn.

Philip D. Harvey has donated $100,000 to the Drug Policy Action Committee to Tax and Regulate Marijuana. The committee is backing Proposition 19, the November ballot initiative to legalize marijuana for adults over 21, allow small residential cultivation and permit local governments to tax and regulate pot sales.

Harvey, so far the only listed donor to the committee, is president of Adam & Eve, a North Carolina mail order and retail firm that has been billed as America’s largest provider of sexual products and adult films.

Harvey is also a philanthropist involved in family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention. He is president of DKT International, which distributes condoms and contraceptives to poor countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Harvey’s website features a 2004 profile by The Economist magazine. It describes him as a “famously libertarian” man who looks “more like an academic than a sex magnate” and who has “broadened his fight for free speech and individual choice” to “America’s war on drugs.”

Source

A campaign for a system of medical marijuana supply systems in Oregon turned in enough signatures to put the measure on the November ballot – if the signatures are valid. According to an early turn-in, the initiative for a medical marijuana supply system has gathered 115,404 signatures. It needs 82,769 verified names of registered voters to make the ballot.

The preliminary total only reflects the signatures gathered by paid petitioners through May. The campaign will continue to gather signatures up to the July 2 deadline to give them a cushion for names that have to be thrown out.

Also, a Detroit City Council committee passed today on amending a city ordinance to allow adults in the city to legally possess a small amount of marijuana. Instead voters will get to decide in November.

Brought to you by the Coalition for a Safer Detroit – the same group that successfully got medical marijuana placed on the ballot in 2004 which passed – the ordinance amendment would allow anyone 21-years-old or older to legally possess less than an ounce of marijuana on private property, amending Chapter 38 of the city code regulating controlled substances.

Tim Beck, a registered medical marijuana user who filed the petitions, says the amended ordinance would “free up the police department to pursue crimes with actual victims.”

Dennis Mazurek, assistant corporation counsel with the city Law Department, told the council’s Internal Operations Committee that the ordinance amendment violates state law, specifically, the Michigan Public Health Code, and cannot be enacted. The state only allows registered medical marijuana use.

According to the City Clerk’s Office, the Coalition submitted 5,750 signatures in May; 3,895 were required and 4,598 were validated.

Beck is confident voters will pass the ordinance, as they passed the medical marijuana ordinance in 2004.

“It’s going to win,” he said. “I have no doubt about that.”

Written by: The Weed Blog

Continue reading for more! Created by Rigo14

An initiative to legalize marijuana and allow it to be sold and taxed will appear on the November ballot, state election officials announced Wednesday, triggering what will probably be a much-watched campaign that once again puts California on the forefront of the nation’s debate over whether to soften drug laws.

The number of valid signatures reported by Los Angeles County, submitted minutes before Wednesday’s 5 p.m. deadline, put the measure well beyond the 433,971 it needed to be certified. Supporters turned in 694,248 signatures, collecting them in every county except Alpine. County election officials estimated that 523,531 were valid.

The measure’s main advocate, Richard Lee, an Oakland marijuana entrepreneur, savored the chance to press his case with voters that the state’s decades-old ban on marijuana is a failed policy.

“We’re one step closer to ending cannabis prohibition and the unjust laws that lock people up for cannabis while alcohol is not only sold openly but advertised on television to kids every day,” he said.

Lee, tapping $1.3 million from his businesses, has put together a highly organized campaign that he emphasized Wednesday would be led by a team of experienced political consultants, including Chris Lehane, a veteran operative who has worked in the White House and on presidential campaigns.

“There’s all kinds of big professional politicos who are coming on board now to take it to the next level,” Lee said.

Opponents have also started to put together their campaign. “There’s going to be a very broad coalition opposing this that will include law enforcement,” said John Lovell, a Sacramento lobbyist who represents the California Police Chiefs Assn. and other law enforcement groups. “We’ll educate people as to what this measure really entails.”

The measure, like the medical marijuana initiative, could put California on a collision course with the federal government. The possession and sale of marijuana remain a federal crime.

This month, President Obama’s drug czar, R. Gil Kerlikowske, decried legalization in a speech to police chiefs in San Jose.

The initiative would allow adults 21 or older to possess up to an ounce for personal use.

Possession of an ounce or less has been a misdemeanor with a $100 fine since 1975, when Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, who was then governor, signed a law that reduced tough marijuana penalties that had allowed judges to impose 10-year sentences.

Written by John Hoeffel from LATimes.

​The Illinois Legislature is scheduled to vote on a bill Friday that would legalize medical marijuana in the state.

Pointing to medical research showing marijuana effectively treats pain, nausea and other symptoms of debilitating medical conditions, the bill would allow patients to legally possess marijuana if their physicians diagnose them with a qualifying condition and recommend medical marijuana to treat it, reports Chris Kirk of The Daily Northwestern.

A vast majority of Illinois residents say they support medical marijuana, with the most recent poll showing 68 percent support in the state.

The act includes a variety of qualifying conditions, including cancer, AIDS, hepatitis C and conditions causing pain or nausea that are unresponsive to other treatments.

Federal law still bans the possession of marijuana for any purpose. But the act would provide a great deal of protection for medical marijuana patients because states are now required to arrest or prosecute people for violating federal laws.

The bill is only meant as a pilot program, according to backers, and would automatically be repealed after three years unless extended by the Legislature.

The state Senate has already approved the bill. It must now be passed by the state House and then signed by the governor in order to become law.

State Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie) said two weeks ago that it appeared the Illinois bill is a few shorts of the 60 required for passage in the House. Lang said at the time that he wouldn’t call it for a vote unless he knows that the measure will pass.

“What I have to overcome is the basic political calculation that many of my colleagues take,” Lang said. “Ultimately, this is a health care bill. It’s not a bill about drugs. I’m here for people’s health care and pain. We should do this controlled piece of legislation… to help people.”

Written by Toke of the Town

(AP) “When California voters head to the polls in November, they will decide whether the state will make history again – this time by legalizing the recreational use of marijuana for adults.

The state was the first to legalize medicinal marijuana use, with voters passing it in 1996. Since then, 14 states have followed California’s lead, even though marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

“This is a watershed moment in the decades-long struggle to end failed marijuana prohibition in this country,” said Stephen Gutwillig, California director for the Drug Policy Alliance. “We really can’t overstate the significance of Californians being the first to have the opportunity to end this public policy disaster.”

California is not alone in the push to expand legal use of marijuana. Legislators in Rhode Island, another state hit hard by the economic downturn, are considering a plan to decriminalize possession of an ounce or less by anyone 18 or older.

A proposal to legalize the sale and use of marijuana in Washington was recently defeated in that state’s legislature, though lawmakers there did expand the pool of medical professionals that could prescribe the drug for medicinal use.

And a group in Nevada is pushing an initiative that marks the state’s fourth attempt in a decade to legalize the drug.

The California secretary of state’s office certified the initiative for the general election ballot Wednesday after it was determined that supporters had gathered enough valid signatures.

The initiative would allow those 21 years and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana, enough to roll dozens of marijuana cigarettes. Residents also could grow their own crop of the plant in gardens measuring up to 25 square feet.

The proposal would ban users from ingesting marijuana in public or smoking it while minors are present. It also would make it illegal to possess the drug on school grounds or drive while under its influence.

Local governments would decide whether to permit and tax marijuana sales.

Proponents of the measure say legalizing marijuana could save the state $200 million a year by reducing public safety costs. At the same time, it could generate tax revenue for local governments.

A Field Poll taken in April found a slim majority of California voters supported legalizing and taxing marijuana to help bridge the state budget deficit.

Those who grow and sell it illegally fear legalization would drive down the price and force them to compete against corporate marijuana cultivators.

Other opponents view marijuana as a “gateway drug” that, when used by young people, could lead them to try other, harder drugs. They worry that legalization would persuade more people to try it, worsening the nation’s drug culture. ”

“We are quite concerned that by legalizing marijuana, it will definitely lower the perception of risk, and we will see youth use go through the roof,” said Aimee Hendle, a spokeswoman for Californians for Drug Free Youth.

The initiative is the second proposal to qualify for the November ballot. The other is an $11.1 billion water bond measure championed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state Legislature.

Written by: The Associated Press

The medical marijuana debate among American voters is over.

Eight in 10 Americans — 81% overall — support allowing doctors to prescribe cannabis, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll.

That’s up from just 69% in 1997, the last time the two firms asked that question, and from 75% in 2003, according to Gallup.

The main divide among American voters today is how the medical community should be enabled to dole out the drug. The most recent state to allow medical marijuana — New Jersey — has the most strenuous controls found anywhere in the nation.

Legislators prohibited doctors from prescribing the drug to anyone they think would benefit from it, instead limiting access to patients suffering from a specific list of illnesses. They also limited marijuana production to a series of non-profit facilities, as opposed to the dispensaries popular in California and other states.

In spite of the apparent national mandate for medical marijuana, just 14 states allow it.

When it comes to outright legalization, the news agencies found that just 46 percent are in favor. Gallup said in October that it had found 44 percent of Americans support legalization, while an Angus-Reid poll in December resulted in 53 percent in favor.

“Medical marijuana, for its part, receives majority support across the political and ideological spectrum, from 68 percent of conservatives and 72 percent of Republicans as well as 85 percent of Democrats and independents and about nine in 10 liberals and moderates,” ABC noted. “Support slips to 69 percent among seniors, vs. 83 percent among all adults under age 65.”

Read the full poll [PDF link].

via Raw Story