Pubdate: Thu, 08 Nov 2012
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2012 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/625HdBMl
Website: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/index.htm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466
Author: Elizabeth Weise, Dennis Cauchon, William M. Welch

LIBERALS SCORE SOCIAL VICTORIES, MAY SIGNAL MAJOR SHIFT

The election produced ground-breaking steps on a pair of social
issues, as voters endorsed same-sex marriage in four states and
legalization of marijuana in two.

"Think of this as the Will and Gracification of America," Dan Schnur,
director of the Jesse Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of
Southern California, says of the gay marriage vote. "Programs like
Will and Grace and Glee are having a similar effect as the Cosby Show
did back in the 1980s."

Future implications for the nation - in politics and policy - could
prove dramatic.

Gay marriage, once so controversial that opponents used the issue to
demonize liberal backers, won victories in Maine, Maryland and
Washington. Minnesota rejected a constitutional amendment banning gay
unions.

Schnur says polls show the young are far more liberal about gay
marriage than those over 50, and far more likely to know openly gay
people.

Colorado and Washington approved legalizing marijuana for recreational
use, defying a federal prohibition since the 1930s.

Just two years ago, California rejected marijuana legalization, and
many states have acted to ban gay marriage in the past.

Approval of same-sex marriage and recreational use of marijuana came
as a rebuke to longstanding federal policies - the Defense of Marriage
Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, and federal
drug policies against marijuana. Ballot measures that had failed for
years on same-sex marriage and drug decriminalization this time won
approval.

Gay marriage supporters won in all four states where it was up for a
vote. Two states, Washington and Colorado, legalized the recreational
use of marijuana while Oregon defeated it. Massachusetts approved
marijuana for medical reasons, while Arkansas rejected it.

"This represents a big change in American society," says Jennie
Bowser, a ballot issues expert at the National Conference of State
Legislatures.

Maine, Maryland and Washington legalized same-sex marriages. Minnesota
rejected a constitutional amendment banning them, though gay marriage
remains illegal there. The votes ended a 14-year, 32-state losing
streak when the issue was put to voters instead of being decided by
courts or legislatures and signal what some analysts call a cultural
shift.

Public opinion is rapidly changing on gay marriage, heavily influenced
by younger voters, said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh
Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. Polls
have found "a huge differential on this issue in terms of age." Voters
over 50 are most opposed and voters 18 to 29 are most supportive of
same-sex marriage. "The generational divide is stark,'' he said.

YOUTH VOTE: 49% turned out at polls

Younger people are more likely than their elders to know others who
are openly gay or in a same-sex relationship and are more accepting of
it, he said.

While demographics played a part in Tuesday's outcomes, outreach
played a key role, said Brian Silva, executive director of Marriage
Equality USA in New York City. "When we introduce ourselves and show
how boring and normal we are, just like every other American family,
people respond."

Demographics aren't all one way, said Chuck Darrell of Minnesota for
Marriage, the group that sought to add a ban on gay marriage to the
state constitution. While younger people may be more positive about
same-sex marriage, that changes as they age, he said. "When the
younger generation has children, the number supporting same-sex
marriage drops quite a bit," he said.

Couples in Maine could be able to marry no later than Jan. 4, possibly
by Dec. 6 in Washington and after Jan. 1 in Maryland. Gay marriage is
currently legal in New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, Vermont and the District of Columbia.

The decision by voters in Colorado and Washington to legalize the
recreational use of marijuana - taking consumption of the drug well
beyond its use for medicinal purposes that is legal in 18 states and
the District of Columbia - overturned decades of marijuana
prohibitions.

The Justice Department, which still regards marijuana as an illegal
drug in the same class as heroin and LSD, has declined to say how it
would respond if the measures were approved.

Voters' decision to legalize marijuana could cause wide-reaching
implications for employers unsure what it means for their hiring and
firing practices. "There are no answers, only questions," said Carl
Maxey of Maxey Truck & Trailer Equipment in Fort Collins, Colo., which
drug-tests prospective employees and any worker involved in a
workplace accident. "It is a very awkward position to put employers in
right now."

The Colorado law does not require employers to permit the use of
marijuana in the workplace, but it's unclear whether an employer can
restrict the use by an employee in non-work hours. "It's virtually
impossible to prove ... unless they see someone lighting a doobie at
work," said Mountain States Employers Council staff attorney Curtis
Graves.

It's possible for a state to legalize something the federal government
deems illegal, said Jonathan Caulkins, a specialist in drug policy at
Carnegie Mellon Heinz College in Pittsburgh. New York legalized
alcohol in 1923 during Prohibition.

American attitudes about marijuana use have been steadily changing. In
2011 a record 50% of Americans told Gallup pollsters that use of
marijuana should be made legal, up from 46% in 2010.

There's also a growing realization that the war on drugs launched by
President Richard Nixon in 1971 has been "a destructive failure," said
Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition, a national group based in Baltimore that was involved in
both the Colorado and Washington campaigns.

He likens the shift to America's alcohol prohibition in the 1920s. "It
was the states that began to push back, one-by-one, until the feds
finally got the message."

Contributing: Pat Ferrier, The (Fort Collins) Coloradoan, Associated Press
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