Asbury Park, NJ: Nearly six out of ten American voters believe
that the  personal use of marijuana should no longer be a criminal offense, and
56 percent  of Americans say that the substance ought to be legalized like
alcohol,  according to a nationwide Rasmussen telephone poll of 1,000
likely voters.
 
According to the poll, 58 percent of respondents believe that it should not
  be a crime "for someone to smoke marijuana" in private. Only 32 percent of
  respondents believed that such activity should remain illegal. Among
  self-identified Democrats, 63 percent agreed that the personal use of marijuana
  should not be a crime versus 49 percent of Republicans.

A solid majority of respondents, 56 percent, also said that they favored
  "legalizing marijuana and regulating it like alcohol or cigarettes."
  (Thirty-four percent were opposed.) Among males polled, 61 percent favored
  legalization versus 52 percent of females. A majority of respondents of every
  age group polled favored legalizing cannabis, including 50 percent of those age
  65 and older. However, among those respondents with children, only 49 percent
  said that they favored legalization.

Support for legalizing cannabis rose to 57 percent when pollsters' asked: Do
  you favor legalizing marijuana if "no one under 18 could buy it, it was banned
  in public, and there were strict penalties for driving under the influence."
The  slight gain in overall support was largely because of a spike in support
among  respondents with children (49 percent to 58 percent) and self-identified
  Republicans (48 percent to 52 percent).

The margin of sampling error is +/- 3
  percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Commenting on the poll, NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said, "This poll
  illustrates, once again, that the public's growing frustration with marijuana
  prohibition and their desire for market based alternatives crosses conventional
  ideological and political boundaries."

He added: "By and large, voters of all ages and all ideological persuasions
  support regulating cannabis like alcohol, and they reject the failed policy of
  arresting, prosecuting, and incarcerating responsible adult marijuana
consumers.  Lawmakers at the state and federal level ought to recognize this sea
change in  public opinion and realize that marijuana law reform is no longer
viewed by  voters as a political liability, but rather as a political
opportunity."

In 2011, a nationwide Gallup  poll reported
that 50 percent of Americans support legalizing the use  of cannabis for adults.
Forty-six percent of respondents said they opposed the  idea.

Most recently, an April 2012 Rasmussen Reports telephone survey reported that 47 percent of adults "believe the  country should legalize and tax marijuana in
order to help solve the nation's  fiscal problems." Forty-two percent of
respondents disagreed, while ten percent  were undecided.

Vancouver, Canada: Three out of four
Americans favor the  use of fines or probation in lieu of criminal sanctions for marijuana offenders,  according to an Angus Reid  Public opinion
poll of 1,011 US adults.


 
According to the poll, 74 percent of
respondents said that they  favored the imposition of "alternative penalties" -
such as fines, probation, or  community service - rather than prison for those
found to have violated  marijuana possession laws. By contrast, only 41 percent
of respondents favored  such penalties for credit card fraud, and only one-third
of those polled favored  alternative sentencing for drunk driving offenders.

Among Canadian respondents, 78 percent prefer fines in lieu of prison for 
minor marijuana offenders. Among British respondents, 70 percent endorsed 
sentencing alternatives.The margin of error is +/-2.2% for Great Britain, and +/-3.1% for Canada and the United States.

The Angus Reid poll comes just weeks after a national  telephone
poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports found that a plurality  of
Americans now support legalizing and taxing the production and sale of
  cannabis. According to the poll of 1,000 adults, 47 percent of adults "believe
  the country should legalize and tax marijuana in order to help solve the
  nation's fiscal problems." Forty-two percent of respondents disagreed, while
ten  percent were undecided.

In 2011, a nationwide Gallup poll reported
that 50 percent of Americans  support legalizing the use of cannabis for adults.
Forty-six percent of  respondents said they opposed the idea. The 2011 Gallup
survey results marked  the first time that the polling firm, which has tracked Americans' attitudes toward marijuana  since the late 1960s, reported that more
Americans support legalizing cannabis  than oppose it.
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive
  Director, at (202) 483-5500.

Hartford, CT: Members of the Connecticut General Assembly decided 95 to 51
last week in favor of  legislation to allow for the limited use and distribution
of cannabis as  medicine. Democrat Gov. Dannel Malloy also backs the
measure.
As approved by lawmakers, the Palliative Use of Marijuana
Act mandates the state to license a limited number of  producers to cultivate cannabis for therapeutic purposes. Qualified patients  under this act would be required to obtain their cannabis via licensed  pharmacies, which would obtain permits to dispense the substance from the state  Department of Consumer Protection.
The measure now goes before the Senate, which has only limited time to act on the bill.
According to a 2012 statewide Quinnipiac University Poll of over 1,600 residents, 68 percent of  voters endorse the measure. Pollsters reported, "There is no gender, partisan,  income, age or education group opposed" to legalizing marijuana as a  physician-recommended therapy.
If enacted, Connecticut will become the 17th state since 1996 to
allow for the limited legalization of medicinal  cannabis. It will be the fourth
New England state to do so.
For more information on Senate Bill 409, please visit NORML's 'Take Action Center' here: http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=61250041
or  contact Connecticut NORML at: http://norml.org/ct/item/connecticut-norml.

  Washington, DC: President Barack Obama is defending his
administration's recent crackdown upon medicinal cannabis providers in states that  allow for its use in a just-published Rolling Stone Magazine  interview.
In recent months, federal justice officials have executed raids on dozens of medical marijuana  providers and related businesses, including Oaksterdam
University in Oakland, in  various states. In some cases, federal authorities have even targeted establishments that were operating in  accordance with a state license.
The Justice Department has also ordered lawmakers in various states - including  Delaware, Rhode Island, and Washington - to suspend plans to authorize cannabis  providers under state law. To date, three states - Colorado, Maine, and New  Mexico - have issued licenses to allow for the state-sanctioned production and  distribution of cannabis. Similar licensing legislation approved in Arizona, New  Jersey, Vermont, and Washington, DC has yet to be implemented by local  lawmakers.
Stated Obama in Rolling Stone: "What I  specifically said was that we were not going to prioritize prosecutions of  persons who are using medical marijuana. I never made a commitment that somehow  we were going to give carte blanche to
large-scale producers and operators of  marijuana - and the reason is, because
it's against federal law. I can't nullify  congressional law. I can't ask the
Justice Department to say, 'Ignore completely  a federal law that's on the
books.'"
He added: "The only tension that's come up - and this gets hyped up a lot -
  is a murky area where you have large-scale, commercial operations that may
  supply medical marijuana users, but in some cases may also be supplying
  recreational users. In that situation, we put the Justice Department in a very
  difficult place if we're telling them, 'This is supposed to be against the law,
  but we want you to turn the other way.' That's not something we're going to
  do." Obama's statements appear to contradict those he made in March 2009, as a Presidential  candidate, when he pledged to cease utilizing "Justice Department  resources to try and circumvent state laws" regarding medical cannabis.

More recently, in December, US Attorney General Eric Holder told members of
Congress that the Justice  Department would only target medical cannabis
operators that "use marijuana in a  way that's not consistent with the state
statute."
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive
  Director, or Keith Stroup, NORML Legal Counsel, at (202) 483-5500.
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