FILE – This Nov. 8, 2012 file photo shows marijuana plants flourishing under the lights at a grow house in Denver. President Barack Obama says he won’t go after Washington state and Colorado for legalizing marijuana. In a Barbara Walters interview airing Friday on ABC, Obama is asked whether he supports making pot legal. He says, “I wouldn’t go that far.” (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)
Ahead of Vox‘s favorite day to enjoy nature, D.C. gives us another reason to be glad Georgetown is located in such a liberal city.
A new poll released today by the Drug Policy Alliance and the Marijuana Policy Project found that 63 percent of residents supported enacting Colorado-esquelegalization schemes here in the District. A further 78 percent of residents said that they would like to expand D.C.’s medical marijuana law so that doctors could prescribe cannabis to patients for any condition whatsoever. (The current law hasquite restrictive limits on what conditions doctors may prescribe marijuana for.)
67 percent would like to see fewer police resources devoted to catching people who smoke weed. More than 4,000 people were arrested for marijuana possession in D.C. last year.
Mike Debonis over at the Post notes that, three years ago, the District was fairly evenly split when it came to the issue: 46 percent in favor to 48 in opposed. D.C. is likely following national trends which now show that a majority, or a near-majority, of Americans support the legalization of marijuana.
This most recent poll, however, has people talking about the possibility of a 2014 ballot initiative either decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana in the District of Columbia. Mason Tvert, the Marijuana Policy Project’s director of communications, told HuffPost D.C. that advocates of legalizing marijunana “will be talking to community leaders and elected officials about various options for adopting a more sensible marijuana policy in D.C., including the possibility of a decriminalization ballot initiative campaign as early as 2014.”
Who knows? If a measure does get sent to the ballot box, we might finally see droves of Georgetown students registering to vote in D.C.
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New Poll Shows that D.C. Wants Legal Weed
Article by Conn