Pubdate: Thu, 05 Mar 2015 Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA) Copyright: 2015 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.utsandiego.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386 Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area. Note: The Washington Post SURVEY: MAJORITY BACK MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION WASHINGTON - For the first time, the General Social Survey - a large, national survey conducted every two years and widely considered to represent the gold standard for public opinion research - shows a majority of Americans favoring the legalization of marijuana. In interviews conducted between March and October of last year - when the legal marijuana markets in Colorado and Washington were ramping up - researchers asked 1,687 respondents the following question: "Do you think the use of marijuana should be made legal or not?" Fifty-two percent said pot should be legalized, 42 percent opposed it, and 7 percent were undecided. Support is up 9 percentage points from 2012. The year 1990 represented the nadir of legalization support, when it stood at 16 percent. But the numbers rose steadily through the 1990s as states began adopting medical marijuana laws, starting with California in 1996. As recently as 2006, support stood only at 32 percent - just a little bit higher than the previous peak in 1978. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom