A New Pot Legalization Proposal in California Gets Good Poll Numbers

The folks behind a proposed California ballot initiative called "Regulate Marijuana Like Wine" have issued the results of a poll they commissioned with some good news for those who want to see marijuana lose its criminality in the state:

A recent poll reveals that California voters, by a 62% to 35% margin, with 3% unsure, support a ballot initiative to regulate marijuana like wine.

The statewide poll, by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates, Inc. surveyed 800 likely voters and found that 80% of the respondents agreed to the statement, "State and federal drug laws are outdated and have failed, therefore, we need to take a new approach that makes sense for today."…

Likely voters also agree (by a margin of 71% to 24%) that state and local law enforcement agencies spend too much time, money and resources enforcing marijuana laws.

In that same poll, the largest "reason for support" answer (41 percent) was to bring in revenue for the community and state. The largest "reason for opposition" answer was, that they were just against drug use (29 percent). 48 percent of those polled said they had themselves tried pot.

The "Regulate Marijuana Like Wine" folk explain why they think their proposal is better than another pot initiative fighting for ballot access in California, the Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act.

My account of the rise and fall of the last attempt to legalize marijuana via initiative in California, which failed 54-46, 2010's Proposition 19, from Reason's February 2011 issue. That one looked like it was heading for victory in the polls in the months leading up to the actual election; things can and do shift, but the general trend in public support for loosening pot laws is pretty consistently upward.