Conclusions

It has been a great semester researching the public's opinion on marijuana and how it has changed. I never truly knew how close we may be as a country to legalizing the drug. I have learned that marijuana has only recently come to the forefront of issues in the United States. 

Forty years ago marijuana was not a topic that was often spoke about in public forums, and the suggestion of possible legalization would have been absurd. In modern times, the drug is becoming increasingly popular and accepted throughout society. Proposition 19, which called for the legalization of marijuana in California on a personal basis, was at the front of issues being voted on in the November midterm elections. Even in defeat, Prop. 19 proved how the opinions of people are beginning to favor the potential legalization, and it may now just be a matter of time before marijuana is made legal in our country. The time I have spent researching opinions and polls throughout the semester has taught me that Americans are changing. Within the last 40 years or so, I found that Americans seem to be more accepting and willing be test new ideas. Before this semester, I had never been too interested on how others felt on controversial issues, but now I understand how many of my views often collaborate with those of others. Public opinion is always changing, and marijuana was an excellent topic to prove this.

All Aboard...

It seems that recently more-and-more major media outlets are beginning to speak out for the legalization of cannabis. Just this week MSNBC published an article that details why America's "experiment" on making cannabis illegal has failed and why it has to stop.  In California, many of the so-called medical cannabis dispensaries and their preferred cultivators forged an odd, and self-interested alliance with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, drug czar’s office, California Chiefs of Police Association, California Beverage Association, Scientologists, drug rehabilitation profiteers and pro-big government, prohibitionist liberals like Senator Diane Feinstein in opposing Proposition 19 (which sought to allow California cities and counties the ability to legalize, regulate and tax cannabis sales to adults for non-medical purposes).



California will not be the last state to attempt the "radical" idea of legalizing the drug while placing strict tax on it. This is something that I see happening very soon in the future all throughout the United States. It will only be a matter of time before the federal government comes to its senses on how to raise money in order to help out current financial crises.

Soon to be former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently made news by saying that, "No one cares if you smoke a joint or not."

This is interesting considering the Hollywood actor turned governor of California signed a law five weeks ago that made possession of up to an ounce of marijuana the equivalent of a traffic ticket. It carries a penalty of no more than a 100 dollar fine and no arrest or criminal record. He defended the law in a TV interview, telling host Jay Leno on NBC television's Tonight Show it was a good idea.

Last week on election day, voters rejected a further initiative that would have allowed adults aged 21 and older to possess and grow small amounts of marijuana. Schwarzenegger told Leno that California's Prop. 19 law had, "gone too far," thus it was not approval by voters.

Exit Poll

On Tuesday our POL 312 class conducted our Exit Poll. It was a pretty exciting time considering we had spent a good amount of the semester preparing questions for the poll and helping eachother with ideas on question order, wording and other topics. Here is my recap of how the day went and some of our results. . .

As a class, we seemed to spent the majority of our time conducting the poll near the Milner Library and inside of the Bone Student Center. Considering the Bone was the polling place, it made sense that the majority of the people willing to take a poll about the elections would be in this central area. I personally was able to grab about 4-5 people in this area (all students) before moving to south campus and the College of Business. In the COB, I found that less people were informed that November 2nd was indeed election day. Even with little knowledge, I found another 5-6 people who were willing to take the poll and support our class results.

As a class, we ended up having 212 people take our poll. This was a fair number and we found the following interesting about our results.

-The majority of the people who took our poll were white in ethnicity and christian in religous faith

-The majority of those answers poll questions voted "democratic" and listed themselves as "liberal"

-The economy/jobs were listed as the primary concern on both a national and state level

-I found it interesting that some people (nearly 50%) said they still had trust with the governor position in Illinois

-Those who voted for Obama in the '08 election primarily voted Democrat once again. This differs from national research.

Overall, the exit poll was a success. The class worked cohesively to get a good number of results and form conclusions based on these results. Personally, this was the first major poll I have conducted. I found the process to be enjoyable and would be interested in conducting more exit polls in upcoming political elections.

Prop 19 is DEAD

Even though voters soundly rejected Proposition 19, cities around California managed to win approval for plans to tax marijuana. The measures were mostly contingent on Proposition 19 passing, so it's doubtful they will have much effect unless pot legalization backers make another stab at a ballot measure sometime in the future.

Many Latin American leaders are breathing a sigh of relief. They were worried that if Proposition 19 in California passed, making recreational marijuana use legal, the drug wars in their respective countries would grow.

Personally, I would have been interested in seeing what would come of Proposition 19 if it had passed. Marijuana is an issue that does not seem to be going away. I would expect the legalization of marijuana to continue to be on upcoming election ballots.

Who Smoked Pot?

I found an article on Gallup from 2002 that caught my eye. It goes into the issue of who has actually smoked marijuana and some statistics on the fact. Statistics show that a third of Americans (34%) said they had tried marijuana at some point. Men were more likely than women to have tried it, 43% to 27%. One might expect to find generational differences, but the proportion of 18- to -29-year-olds and the proportion of 30- to -49-year-olds who say they have tried it are about the same -- 46% and 45%, respectively. However, the figure plummets to 14% among those aged 50 and older.

Some see Marijuana use as a "city problem" that has not made it's way to suburban America. In fact, there's the numbers show little difference in drug experimentation by population center. 38% of urban dwellers have tried marijuana, as have 31% of suburbanites, and 34% of people who live in rural areas.

As Republicans are much less likely than Democrats to think marijuana use should be legal (21% versus 36%), it stands to reason that Republicans would be less likely to have tried marijuana. From the poll, about the SAME amount of Republicans have tried Marijuana as Democrats. (33% to 31%). 


It's always fascinating to see different ideologies in numbers. I personally would expect Republicans, being conservative in nature and against drug use, to have much lower percentages when polled on drug use. These numbers show how drug use cannot be characterized by party, race, religion or sex. Marijuana use is prevalent all over America. These numbers are from 2002, so I would have to imagine they have been on the rise ever since.

Drugs Across the Border

In a Gallup opinion briefing from February, 2009, it was found that over 6,000 innocent people were killed in the on-going drug war that is tearing apart Mexico. With Mexico being our neighbor to the south, it leads one to question where these drugs are heading? Could they be going to the United States, a country where drug use is highly patrolled? In Mexico,violence has soared since President Calderon declared war on drug traffickers in late 2006 and deployed tens of thousands of troops to combat the cartels; much of the surge is viewed as backlash against the crackdown. Bloodshed across the U.S. border has prompted some experts in recent months to issue dire warnings about Mexico's future stability and the potential security risks to the United States. A 2008 poll showed how large group of gangs have grown and whether common citizens are becoming fearful for their own innocent lives. Nearly 60% of those polled said that they have gang members living in close proximity to them and over 40% say that direct drug trafficking happens in their neighborhoods. These scenarios are playing out all over Mexico. United States President Obama applauded Calderon for his "extraordinary courage and leadership" in dealing with drug trafficking and the related violence in Mexico. According to Obama's press secretary Robert Gibbs, the president has expressed his support during the meeting for "the valuable work being done under the Merida Initiative," the $1.4 billion U.S. counter-drug and anti-crime assistance package for Mexico and Central America. The drug war in Mexico seems to be never ending and continues to escalate daily. Travelers are being fearful of visiting the country it has become such a large issue. Americans need to question why drugs, in particular marijuana, has become such a sought after drug in Mexico, and whether the purchase by citizens of the United States is what is inciting this drug war to the south. With marijuana continuing to stay illegal and patrolled in the US, one can only imagine this gruesome war to the south continuing to escalate.

ABC News Quiz

Today I came across a quiz about marijuana that I found interesting from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and posted on the ABC News website. To even my surprise I received at 7 out of 7 on the quiz. I would suggest everyone to take this poll to gain some greater knowledge about the popular drug.


Also, I recently read a Gallup Poll that spoke about Canadians and their public opinions about marijuana. The Gallup article is titled, "Canadian Relax Views on Marijuana," and goes into detail about how in the 1970's Canadians were fairly evenly divided on the legality of possessing a small amount of marijuana. Thirty-five percent of Canadians believed that it should be a criminal offense, 36% believed it should be an offense subject only to a fine, and less than a quarter (23%) thought that possessing a small amount of marijuana should not be considered an offense at all. In only twenty five years opinion has shifted in support of treating marijuana possession less harshly. In the 2002 poll, 40% of Canadians said that the possession of a small amount of marijuana should be subject to a fine, while a similar percentage (37%) said it should not be considered an offense at all -- only 22% said it should be a criminal offense.  The bottom line is that throughout North America, individual citizens are becoming less strict about the use and possession of marijuana. This poll goes to show that America is not the only place where common people are relaxing on their public opinion of marijuana.

Record Breakers or Steroid Takers?

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Summer Games were a great time to be a sports fan. Athletes like Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, US Men's Basketball and US Gymnastics all performed tremendously and came home with multiple gold medals to show. About two years about, right before the games began in August, Gallup polled 1,007 adults via telephone about their suspicions of Olympic athletes heading into the games. Most of those polled said they are not suspicious about the use of performance-enhancing drugs when they see or hear about an athlete breaking a world record. About 35% said that they feel suspicious when they see a track and field athlete break a world record, while only 22% feel suspicious when they see a swimmer break a record. Performing enhancing drugs are not a new concern in the Olympic games. They became extremely widespread in the 1980's, mostly with track and field athletes. By the 2000 Olympic games in Australia, many athletes were "doping." Marion Jones, an American Olympic legend from the 2000 games served prison time for lying to a federal grand jury about her use of performing enhancing drugs. She has since been stripped of her medals. Evidence shows the people are still confident that their athlete are not "cheating", especially in Olympic swimming. In all, performing enhancing drugs have continued to be at the forefront of the games and higher rates of testing should be able to provide proof the our athletes are no longer cheating the games.

Prohibition of Marijuana

This past week while researching the website PollingReport.com I came across an article with great statistics concerning the use of illegal drugs and Americans opinions. What I took away was the amount of growing Americans who would be in favor of the legalization of marijuana if a tax was implemented on it. Still, a solid 55% oppose the overall legalization of the drugs. With the argument of legalizing marijuana brings the argument of punishment if one if found in possession of the drug. 32% of those polled feel that if marijuana was in fact legalized it would reduce the amount of current crime. This can be compared to when alcohol was made illegal during Prohibition (1920-1933) the amount of criminal activity skyrocketed. Street gangs and bootleggers became extremely wealth all because of the crazy idea by the government to ban alcohol. It makes one think whether someday the same may be said about marijuana. With constant drug wars being fought in Mexico and the murder rate growing, something must be done in regards to this serious issue. Could the legalization of this "drug" potentially reduce crime and make America and the rest of the world a safer place? Time will tell.

The number continues to grow. . .

A recent survey done by Rasmussen Reports shows that almost half of Americans (43%) now say that are in favor of the legalization of Marijuana. Although a strong 42% still favor Marijuana remaining illegal, it is fascinating to see how quickly Americans are jumping on the "bandwagon" of legalizing the drug. From February, 2010, to July 2010, the number rose 3%. This may not sound substantial, but in context to the number of citizens in this country it shows a large shift. Most of the respondents argue that the legalziation of marijuana should be followed in part by a strong governmental tax. Forty percent (40%) of Adults admit to smoking marijuana at some time in their lives, but 55% say they have never tried it. 61% of those polled who have tried marijuana agree with the legalizing the drug. This newest survey goes to show how quickly the public's opinion is changing on the topic on marijuana. Everyday more and more Americans are realizing the amount the country could be making on the taxation of this drug. As the percentage of people in support of legalization continues to grow, it may just be a matter of time before legalization becomes a reality.

Drugs in America

Illegal drugs have always been a major foundation in American history. This topic of public opinion is nothing new. According to Gallup, recently Americans have began to come together on debate of whether the United States is doing enough to cope with the use of illegal drugs. This is the closest the numbers have been (34%) since the early 1970's. Since the beginning of the new millenium, about one-in-three Americans have felt that drugs have become an extremely serious problem. This percentage has stayed primarily the same throughout the past 10 years.

What I found most interesting about the Gallup Polls is the increasing number of people who think marijuana should be made legal. All the way back in 1969 only 12% of the American general public believed in the legalizion of marijuana. As recently as October of 2009 that number has already grown to 44% of Americans, and looks to be continuing to rise. Could this be because we live in a more "laid back" society? Could it be a that society is "revolting" against the government? These 44% of people could also be part of the 42% who would like to see a tax put on marijuana in order to make it safe and legal. What the Gallup Polls have showed me is that Americans views on drugs are constantly changing. If anything, it goes to show that no two people have the same feelings about illegal drugs in modern day American culture.

(Information from Gallup)
http://www.gallup.com/poll/1657/Illegal-Drugs.aspx

POL 312 Introductions

Hello!

Tim with the Stanley Cup at Pub II. August 21, 2010.

My name is Tim Gregory and I am currently a Senior at Illinois State University. I will be graduating in December and heading out into the "real world." I am majoring in Political Science with a minor in Business Administration. I still am unsure on what I would like to do after college, so suggestions are always welcome! I think of myself as an outgoing person who enjoys sports, being outside, vacationing, tailgating and hanging out with my friends and family.

I will be focusing this blog on the topic of illegal drugs and steroids in specific. As I stated previously, I have always been involved in playing sports as well as lifting weights. Being involved in sports I have seen and heard of teammates of mine experimenting with steroids and other types of performance enhancing drugs. Also, with all of the media coverage major league athletes have been recieving regarding PED's I believe this topic will have many different public opinions. I look forward to this semester and learning more about the public's opinion on steriods.