In a new Field Poll, and for the first time, officially, in state history, a clear majority of Californians say they support the full legalization of marijuana. The poll, conducted between Nov. 14 and Dec. 5, found that among a group of 1,002 registered California voters, 55 percent support the legalization of marijuana, with 47 percent of those people saying it should be regulated and age-restricted the way alcohol is. (8 percent support just flat-out legalization and giving it to the kids too.)
As Bay City News reports, these numbers track with a nationwide poll conducted in October that found 58 percent of Americans support marijuana legalization overall. But odd that California would come out a few percentage points below, and not above, the rest of the country on the issue though there is an error margin of 3 percent.
Compare this to the 50 percent who supported legalization in 2010, and the 30 percent who supported it back in 1983.
There remains a bit of a generation gap in California's numbers, with the oldsters pulling the average down a bit; 64 percent of 18-to-49-year-olds support legal pot, while 47 percent of senior citizens feel the same. Still, that is good news for pot sellers and advocates who have been preparing for a possible ballot initiative in the 2014 mid-term elections.
The thinking is that, even though voter turnout will be higher in the general election in 2016, it may be wiser to strike while the iron is hot with this issue and the get the ball rolling on a state regulatory system for marijuana, which will take a few years to implement.
Gavin Newsom is now in full support of moving ahead right away. He's heading up an ACLU panel on legalization, and he say the new poll shows a "growing consensus to move on this in 2014 and not wait until 2016, and that's a big shift even from six months ago."
Organizers and backers of the ballot measure now have a little under three months to gather a half-million signatures from registered voters in the state. The deadline for submitting the signatures for the November ballot is February 24.
