Pubdate: Fri, 05 Apr 2013
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2013 Star Advertiser
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154
Author: Rob Hotakainen, McClatchy Newspapers
Page: A3

MARIJUANA WOULD BE LEGAL IF LEFT TO MOST AMERICANS

WASHINGTON - Just five months after Washington state and Colorado
voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use, a poll released
Thursday found that most Americans now agree and say it should not be
illegal to smoke the drug.

And, as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder tries to figure out how to
respond to the new legalization laws, the poll had more good news for
voters in the two states: Sixty percent of Americans say the U.S.
government should not enforce federal drug laws in any state that has
voted to legalize pot.

The poll found a strong consensus among people of all political
persuasions for the federal government not to intervene: 64 percent of
those who identified as independents, 59 percent of Democrats and 57
percent of Republicans.

Overall, 52 percent of Americans now say marijuana should be legal,
while 45 percent say it should remain illegal, according to the poll
conducted in mid-March by the Pew Research Center.

The center said the results marked the first time in more than four
decades of polling on the issue that legalized marijuana had won
majority support.
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MAP posted-by: Matt