To the surprise of virtually no one who has been following public opinion polls for the past 18 months, the call to “legalize the medicinal and recreational use of marijuana” placed #1 in the 2010 Change.org online vote for the “Top 10 Ideas for Change in America.”
Open voting at the Change.org website took place for six weeks — during which time citizens voted nearly 210,000 times on over 2,500 different ideas. This morning the website released the top 10 results here.
Legalization’s first place victory was expected. After all, the issue topped a similar Change.org poll last year. Legalizing marijuana also finished #1 in the White House’s first ever Change.gov poll; it finished #1 in Barack Obama’s first-ever online Town Hall vote; and it finished #1 in the White House’s 2009 ‘Citizens Briefing Book.’
Yet despite these consistent first-place finishes, the administration and the mainstream media remain dismissive. President Obama has twice publicly retreated from the issue — the second time chuckling that such a question would even be asked of him. His press secretary discounted the issue’s true public support, claiming that groups like NORML had somehow stuffed the online ballot box. As if! Meanwhile, mainstream media outlets brushed off the results as the work of “Internet trolls.”
Trolls, huh? How do ‘trolls’ explain the consistent victories racked up by marijuana law reformers at the polls year after year? And how do trolls explain the rising public opinion poll numbers that now show that over 80 percent of the public supports legalizing medical marijuana, and a solid majority also backs legalization for all adults.
Will today’s latest poll results finally be the time that President Obama, his press secretary, stuttering Robert Gibbs, Drug Czar Gil ‘legalization isn’t in my vocabulary‘ Kerlikowske, and the members of the mainstream press start to heed the public’s message that marijuana legalization is not a political liability, but rather it is a political opportunity?
Probably not. But that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to stop telling them that it is.
@ #40 jon ganj-ovi
Thank you for posting this info/link…
Considering the essential and VITAL role of
all of the plant’s components;
IF THE TRUTH BE KNOWN:
For it to continue to remain illegal
is the same as making LIFE ITSELF illegal…
For want of inexpensive, food-grade cannabis…
I have, for the time being…
Gone2PotLESSness 🙁
This Government seems to be more interested in other countries business.We have bases in like 140 countries.We are in Irans,Iraqs,Afganistans,Pakistans,Isreals not to mention the many other countries business.Were going to get screwed on this health care bill,while big Pharma will thrive even more.Our schools are going to shit.We are being overrun with illegal aliens,who seem to have more rights than american citizens.Until we all wake up and see were being given the back seat to same corperations that actually run this country (FASCISM) we will continue to take it up the ASS.
The only chance:
MOVEMENT MUST GET THE STREETS.
Point.
I am 53. Been puffing since age 14. Want to see total legal now! The answer to national debt is a grass tax. I used it to get off alcohol and tabacco. A lot safer than booze for sure! Peace all!
Prohibition Addicts are a terrible bunch to get into treatment. They’re just examples of “total denial.”
@55
I hear you. I used it for the exact same thing just over a year ago and been clean since. I’d definitely toke up instead of drinking any day.
Our so called leaders are the ones that brought the drugs into our country to begin with and due to large corporations paying them under the table they keep marijuana illegal. Boycott any man made drug and watch just how swiftly they move to legalize…The action of taking away from them will open their eyes to the fact that we have had enough and we intend for things to be done as we see fit. We need to show these people that just because they are in a high ranking position doesn’t give them the right to take our rights. We do not need a TOTALITARIAN GOVERNMENT and that is what it is coming to
my doctor tells me to smoke weed for my heart. but he cant prescibe it to me in this state. i think it should be as leagle as booze which i try to stay away from. but just think of the taxes that could be generated.
I find all these comments about Obama curious. Apparently people have very short memories. Just a short time ago we had an administration (GOP) that had Attorney Generals who actively raided MJ clinics. Now we have a Prexy who has told his AG to lay off the clinics, and everybody’s angry that MJ isn’t already legal! Gimme a F****** break! I wish Obama could suddenly legalize it too, but come on let’s be realistic and not so hypocritical. If Obama even mentioned making MJ legal, the GOP would jump on it like a bunch of angry tea baggers!
I would rather smoke pot then to constantly have my doctors prescribing pills, pills, and more pills to control the chronic pain I have suffered with since 1996. I have Hemochromatosis, referred as iron over load disease that attacks every major organ in my body including agoraphobia. It comes me down, so I don’t have to be depent on xanax, it helps with the chronic pain issues associated with cancer, hip pain, seizures,
and helps aid me to eat, with out it, I would be just a voice. It helps me gain weight, and helps me sleep better and more deeply then to have to take a RX med to make me sleep. It is not harmful to the body then the millions of pharmacy drugs that can kill you instilly if a pharmarist or doctor screws up your script. As a CA resident I urge the voters of our state to pass AB2254. It would also help end the war on drugs. If the government doesn’t want this bill to pass, then tax the hell out of booze and smokes, and everything from a-z. Stop filling our CA prisons and jails for people who have it for relief. Marijuana introduced for the Nov ballot in CA would enable it to be taxed just like everything else, but it would help ease the pain all of suffer from with our out of control spending thus losing thousands of jobs, destroying families, and putting thousands on the streets. Enough is enough! Get Tough CA and put a end to this madness!
The government keeps their employees in jobs by putting
people away for marijuana charges. Just imagine how many guards and prison employees would be out of a job.
Our government is putting these people away for marijuana use but yet the Federal government grows their own marijuana at the university of Mississippi
for Federal employees who are sick and use it for medicinal purposes??? What makes them better than other sick US citizens?
My son was sentenced to mandatory minimum of 10 years for marijuana use. He is a cancer patient and was tired of using hard perscribed drugs that had far worse side affects and very expensive. He would also share what he had with other cancer patients to help them with thier pain management.Other than that, he lived a productive life, worked, paid his taxes, took care of his 9 year old son. Now he is in prison for a longer time than most voilent criminals. I guess it will take a high level official to get sick with cancer or some other horrible disease to see the benefits of marijuana, or maybe someone in his family that can’t afford the high priced addictive pain medicine. the government convicts people for taking other people’s lives, well someone should convict the government for taking the lives of all the marijuana users in the prison system. It will all come back to them one day, I just hope it is in my life time.
The FEDERAL government will NEVER legalize marijuana. Sorry to get your hopes up, but there are treaties in place that prevent Obama from even legalizing it if he even supported it. I think he might secretly support it, but there is little he could actually do. The only chance at legalization is through the use of social influence and amending state laws. Don’t concentrate your efforts on legalization at a national level; it’s a lost cause.
I honestly believe MJ will become legal in the not-too-distant future. (By that I mean maybe 10 years.) The oldest generation today is the last of the pre-pot-smoking generations, all of those people in their mid-70s and older. (And they have traditionally been the most diligent voters.) Every generation thereafter smoked MJ–every one, even the more conservative Generation Xers.
I understand why people feel frustrated and impatient; I sometimes do as well. But don’t lose heart: time IS on our side. It IS merely a matter of time. In the not-too-distant future, we will truly be able to “vote the bums out” if they don’t accede to our wishes. Hang in there–it WILL happen.
Does anyone know how this health care bill will effect pharmaceutical companies. Here`s an example of how big pharma is destroying our health care, our freedom, and our lives. One person I know recently researched how much their prescription drugs cost medicaid(taxdollars). Remember this is just one person out of millions. In just one year medicaid(taxpayers) was charged $21,600,for this persons prescription drugs. And how do we know these people getting these (free) drugs aren`t selling them on the black market. Why aren`t all patients receiving so many drugs tested to make sure they aren`t selling them? These questions aren`t being answered because the greedy people gaining money from it want it kept hush hush. I realize that this may be an extreme example, but to me it raises a major red flag to what does this new health care bill do about these insane costs to taxpayers? This money does not include the doctors fee and other fees, just the cost of the pills. Research and development costs to big companies should not come from tax dollars aimed at helping people in poverty. Right? Legalizing ,(100%) marijuana would make it free to grow your own pain medicine. Which would mean the big pharma would lose billions, which would mean their puppets in Washington would lose billions too. And don`t let the hypocrites of the alcohol industry off the hook either. More people under 21 die from alcohol-related deaths than any other cause. Yet the majority of idiots against legalizing marijuana drink alcohol on a regular bases. Irony? You decide. Follow the money, find the devil.
weed should be legalized if the majority of the community thinks so. There are many more reasons why weed should be legal then illegal. Its really just a matter of time until the right people pass the laws to make weed LEGAL.
Does it suprise anyone that this progressive government doen’t listen to “We the People” on the issue of cannabis, anymore than they listen to us on the Healthcare Bill, or “anything else.” for that matter. I persoanally view it as a very simple matter of “TURN ABOUT IN FAIR PLAY,” that is to say…O.K….
if that’s the way you want to play, see if “We the People” listen to you. See ya at the voting booth. You can shit in one hand and wish in the other and see which one fills up first, if you think you’re gonna get my vote. In fact…”YOU’RE FIRED!” You’re out of sight and out of mind. Why don’t you just leave, no one likes you anyway. See ya, wouldn’t want to be ya.
1. Recreational use…2.Medical use…3.Religious use.
If you chose number 3, let’s start talkin’ as a worldwide faith based community. I’m sure there are those in the cannabis culture that have faith in God and his gift of Holy Sacrament. Great numbers have great power…”power to move mountains.”
WE THE PEOPLE, no longer stands for anything in this country!!! over half the people voting yes on anything only counts on servivor the T.V show.A majoraty is only recognized if it concerns a pay raise for the regime that is in power.We are all just sheep being led to slaugter but not till the gov.gets every doller they can from us!!!!!!!!
How many times-have I read a post or heard someone remark…”GOD CREATED CANNABIS,” and how many times have I heard the judge ask…”WHAT IS YOUR RELIGION AND HOW MANY ARE THERE OF YOU.” Well!…if you believe in God, “TRULY BELIEVE IN GOD,”you can tell the judge, “I AM A GENESIST. IT’S A FAITH WITHIN ANY MONOTHEISTIC RELIGION, AND WE ARE A WORLD-WIDE FAITH BASED COMMUNITY AND CULTURE.” If you don’t believe in God, and use God’s name, you simply prove the judge’s point.
Believe in God-and-be proud of it. He did give us “MANNA as Holy Sacrament…Genesis I:29,30,31,
“BEHOLD, I HAVE GIVEN YOU EVERY GREEN HERB FOR FOOD.”
To Bret 71 03.24.10 12:46 p.m. We the People do stand!
It is said that “evil will [triumph] when good men do nothing.” We have, this very day, all the necessary ingreients [brewing] that caused the American Revolution-freedom; that which we fought and died for. The most recognizable of these ingredients is “religious persecution.” Genesists are being persecuted because of their religious use of our Holy Sacrament.
Well!…”I’m the cause of those things that effect me,” so! [if I do nothing] evil will triumph over me, and I will only have [myself to blame]. Everyone is the protector of their own rights. This I know for sure…when I look to [others] to speak for me, silence miht very well be the strongest voice I can use. It’s what I’m showin’ that makes a difference to who is lookin’. I’m showin absolute victory! [yet] I pray I don’t become the beast, trying to defeat the beast. This I know too…I can’t walk around with a big ole’ happy face, when the ground is crumblig beneath my feet. Crumbling it is! [so] I pray…”Lord let me win [but] if I can’t win, let me be brave in the attempt.” Men should never judge their own cause [so] “God will be the judge.” I wonder how God feels [today] about what or who rules the world.
It’s true! governmenty [doen’t care]what we the people have to say, that’s our lamentation. Government can’t hear we the people [as] government should hear we the people. For that reason, I [will not] go quietly into the night. I will slug it out every inch of the way, and it is my [hope] that [if you] believe in God and his gift of Holy Sacrament [you will] join me to [reinstate] our inalienable Constitutional right of Holy Sacrament. Remember! the free ground we stand on is tapped solid by the feet of individual action. “One for all, all for one.”
I know it will help us in tremendous ways. Why not use every resource we have instead of waiting 10 more years for to be legal so we can WOW ourselves at how much it actually did help us. Than to take action now. (added by Mobile using Mippin)
WHILE AMERICANS ARE FIGHTING OVERSEA IN TWO WARS
1. While Americans are fighting and dying in two wars one in Afghanistan one in Iraq three unarmed black men are shot at over 50 times. Sean Bell was shot four times and died! The unarmed passenger in the front seat was shot 19 times and lived . The back seat unarmed passenger was shot three times ones in the car then chase and shot two more times. All because a undercover cop said he overheard one of the men say “they where going to get a gun! No gun was found! But the cops lie and said a forth man that never was found nor anyone other then the police officer saw had the gun. The American justice system said to the victim TOO-BAD SO-SAD cop where justify! Sean Bell life is worthless to police officers and the justice system!
2. While Americans are fighting and dying in two wars one in Afghanistan one in Iraq a 92 year old black women was shot at 39 times 6 bullets hit their mark killing the 92 year old senior citizen in her home. Then the three white cops handcuff the dead woman and planted drugs in her home. All because they raided the WRONG home! Ms. Johnston was nothing more then a ni—er to these cops! The cops receive less then six year for their crimes! A 92 year old black woman life was only worth less then 6 years of punishment! Ms Johnston at 92 years old lived longer then 88% of all living being!
3. While Americans are fighting and dying in two wars one in Afghanistan one in Iraq 41 bullets was shot at a unarmed innocent black man! Killing the man and the four white undercover where justify by our American count system! 13 bullet where found in Mr. Diallo feet. Showing the coward cops where just shooting to be shooting without care of right or being WRONG! The four white cops gave chase and murder the wrong man and then lie and said they mistaken a wallet for a gun! That obvious lie was good enough for America justice system!
4. While Americans are fighting and dying in two wars one in Afghanistan one in Iraq a 7 year old black child while sleeping was burn and shot to death by a cop. She was not a threat to anyone she was asleep in her home! She was a 7 year old child innocent! But the cops ones again had raided the WRONG home! Then some of the media blame the child for living in a bad neighborhood! They also blame the people living in the same neighborhood!
5. While Americans are fighting and dying in two wars one in Afghanistan one in Iraq a black pregnant woman while driving her 7 year old child to school. She was stop by cops for speeding and refuse to sign the ticket. The cop taser her three pulled her out of her car to the ground punch and handcuff and arrested her while her screaming child watch! The American court system said the cops where justify! Ms. Malaika Brooks gave birth without problem.
6. While Americans are fighting and dying in two wars one in Afghanistan one in Iraq a 72 year old white woman was taser and push to the ground and threaten to be taser again! By a white cop who stood about 6 feet 240 pounds and felt threaten by a 135 pound senior citizen. all because she refuse to sign a ticket! Ms. Kathryn Winkfein was attack by a pure coward cops and the American court system said to her TOO-BAD-SOO-SAD the cop was justify!
7. While Americans are fighting and dying in two wars one in Afghanistan one in Iraq when the American troops return they will find out that Arizona now have made “Racial Profiling” a way of life for Hispanic America! The Governor will say that her immigration bill is not “Racial Profiling” But every non-white understand the history of allowing police officer to stop non-whites! The troops will find that Arizona government stop all ethic study in schools. While Americans are fighting and dying in two wars one in Afghanistan one in Iraq!
8. While Americans are fighting and dying in two wars one in Afghanistan one in Iraq when they return to Texas they will find that the school system wants to change history denouncing and belittling any American seen as too liberal. Slavery be call something like American trade system while Americans are fighting and dying in two wars one in Afghanistan one in Iraq!
9. While Americans are fighting and dying in two wars one in Afghanistan one in Iraq 4 black men are stop and beaten by upward of fifteen Philly white cops! Kick and called racial names and all caught of videotape! First the police department fire and suspended some of the cops. But the court system with the videotape evident of the beaten said TOO-BAD-SOO-SAD reinstated the cops and the union gave them a party!
10. While Americans are fighting and dying in two wars one in Afghanistan one in Iraq the Iraq War the troops would find out the nearly 4,400 American that gave their life’s . Did it for NOTHING! There was NO (WOMD) Weapon of Mass Destruction as the former President G. W. Bush and said! To this day Bush & Cheney never answer for the needless deaths of American citizen!While Americans are fighting and dying in two wars one in Afghanistan one in Iraq!
Happy Memorial DAY
I think the last thing we need in this country is marijuana being sold in stores. Considering the way America’s education system has dropped to 2nd to last in “THE WORLD” the last thing we need is a substance that will dumb down Americas youth.
Legalizing marijuana will make it that much easier for our children to get a hold of the substance. The only way we could stop youth from getting a hold of this stuff is by creating some kind of system in each store to minimize the sale of the product to minors, and to make it harder for minors to steel this stuff. That smells like a bunch of funding to me. That smells like a crap load of special interest groups. That sounds to me like no way shape or form a stimulant to the economy, besides the fact that government will tax the crap out of it. And people still continue to say it will stimulate the economy when congress has not even passed a budget. Lets take care of first things first, and then worry about making it easier for pot heads to smoke what should be prescribed to them by their doctor in the first place. If anybody wishes to email me about this do so at http://www.estrada.estrada.andy5@gmail.com
Respectfully
Andy Estrada
[Editor’s note: Beyond making a bunch of bizarre and incorrect statements, let’s hope you can live with legalized cannabis because whether you like it or not, cannabis is going to be legalized, sold and taxed because 73 years of Cannabis Prohibition has failed, and probably fails children and parents more as children regularly acknowledge in government surveys that they can more readily access untaxed and unregulated cannabis than taxed products like tobacco and alcohol products (where the sellers have to actually check for IDs…).
If you support cannabis prohibition, you support children having unfettered access to a totally uncontrolled product.]