Americans have substantially progressed in their views about marijuana and that’s not good news for Team Trump. You might remember that recently Jeff Sessions indicated that he fully intended to bring back the war on drugs. However, this appears to have almost no support, given that most Americans think that marijuana use should be legal and that drug addiction should be treated as a mental health problem rather than a criminal offense. In fact, not only do 61 percent of Americans support marijuana legalization, more of them (71 percent) oppose the federal government’s attempts to stop marijuana sales and its use in states that have already legalized it.
The belief that pot should be legal has reached a new high in CBS News polls. Sixty-one percent of Americans now say the it should be, a five-point increase from a year ago. This sentiment has increased each year we’ve measured it since 2013, with the turning point to majority support coming in 2014. Back in 1979, this poll found just 27 percent saying it should be legal.
Of course, since when do Trump and company actually take into account the best interests of the American people when making policy? Then there’s the fact that they don’t actually have a clear stance on marijuana to begin with. Earlier this week on Meet the Press, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said that marijuana had nothing to do with the drug war, which he quickly backtracked on Tuesday in a speech and called it a “dangerous gateway drug.” So which is it? Do they even know? Even though this administration seems making it up as it goes along, the American people seem to be very clear on which they think it is.
Sixty-five percent think marijuana is less dangerous than most other drugs. And only 23 percent think legalizing marijuana leads to an increase violent crime. [...]
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asserted a connection between marijuana and violent crime, but few Americans see it that way: just 23 percent think legalizing pot increases violent crime, while nearly as many think legal marijuana decreases it.
But perhaps the most telling (and not all that surprising) is that the support for legalization breaks down by age and gender.
Those over 65 are the most opposed to legalization, but most under age 65 support it. And women are now as much in favor of legal marijuana as men are; in previous years they were less so.
And in case you were wondering, here are the ages of Trump’s advisors— Sessions is 70, Kelly is 66, Tillerson is 65 and Trump himself is 70. In 2014, Rex Tillerson alone made a salary of $33.1 million. This group of folks are not exactly your “salt of the earth” types. And since most Americans believe that marijuana is safer than alcohol, is it any wonder that they are out of touch with what the American people think? Lastly, let’s not forget about the millions of dollars in profit that can be made through a war on drugs as people are locked up and sent to private prisons (remember when Trump overturned the Obama administration’s decision to stop contracting with private prisons so his campaign donors could benefit?). Even though the American people support marijuana legalization, Trump and friends will do everything in their power to make sure to stop it.