This is what the future could look like. Photo: Sparc

This week, Business Insider says that the marijuana legalization effort has already, for all intents and purposes, won the war on drugs in this country. Of course, pot is only legal in two states, and California, where medical marijuana is already legal, just failed to pass a full legalization referendum three years ago. But, they say, even the police are starting to give up on marijuana as a priority in various parts of the country.

Plus, the momentum has come way over on the side of legalization, making it all but inevitable in the next decade.

Here's the latest polling data:

A Pew poll released today found a whopping 52 percent of Americans say marijuana should be legal, with 48 percent opposed. While Americans are divided on this, the momentum lies with those in favor of legalization — In the early 1970s, only 12 percent of Americans supported legalization, and ten years ago only a third of Americans did.

What's more, more than half of Americans 30 to 64 support legalization and 65 percent of Americans 18 to 29 support it.

Meanwhile, though, Oaksterdam University remains a shadow of its former self — see Oakland North's great coverage this week on the one-year anniversary of the federal raid — and medical marijuana purveyors all over the state are living in fear of the next Justice Department move to curtail the booming industry.

Strange times, these.

[Business Insider]

All previous medical marijuana coverage on SFist.