# What changed public opinion regarding marijuana legalization? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 10, 2018, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392 "2018-08-10T16:03:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/41 "2018-08-11T04:25:30Z")
Popular culture, in the form of movies and tv, certainly played a part in changing the laws. Among stoners there is a popular movie called Reefer Madness which is an over the top portrayal of marijuana use from the 1930’s: except it was meant to be sincere, and was subtitled “warm your kids”. In the 1950’s, TV detectives on Dragnet demonized reefer. By the 70s and 80s, though, we had Cheech and Chong and funny guys like Spicoli. By the 1990s, you got joking references in sitcoms. Now, it is true that there was some break in popular consumption when more people were exposed to “grass” in the 60s and 70s, but it seems to me that pop culture references reached far more people than actually used weed. Yet that saturation surely resulted in the perception that pot was less serious than earlier generations believed, until criminalizing it starts to seem increasingly absurd. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/42 "2018-08-11T07:25:55Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I agree. Marijuana should be legal and tax-free. Marijuana does have a social cost, so taxing it is reasonable. Nowhere near the social cost of keeping it illegal, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/43 "2018-08-11T07:27:51Z")
> [@sqweels](#): > > I agree with your 1st point to some extent, but I think there are a couple of twists when it comes to marijuana. I can imagine what they saw as drug-fueled depravity in the 60s is one reason why some people became conservatives in the 1st place, but then again many conservatives continued to oppose legalization because they saw it as “liberal”. > > But nowadays there are _some_ conservative who–with uncharacteristic consistency–support legalization to be in keeping with their libertarian beliefs. I wonder how the right breaks down about this. My guess would be that the libertarian right supports legalization, but the religious right does not. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/44 "2018-08-11T12:18:03Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I wonder how the right breaks down about this. My guess would be that the libertarian right supports legalization, but the religious right does not. Whichever way that has happened, I think it’s clear that - in general - public opinion long ago passed some kind of tipping point on the subject of marijuana, and legalization is merely a question of when and of cleaning up some details. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/45 "2018-08-11T13:16:35Z")
Two big factors: 1. publicity about marijuana being a sort of wonder drug - heavily overblown, but valuable for eliminating resistance to legalization. People don’t want to be seen as cruel to kids with seizure disorders or cancer patients. 2. lots of potential $$$ for governments needing dough to keep their budgets afloat. It’s like the effect the Depression had on booze legalization - officials badly needed alcohol tax revenue so they became less resistant to overturning Prohibition. I find it comical to suggest that Boomers dying off is a significant factor, as that “generation” is associated strongly with a much larger percentage of dopeheads than ever before. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/46 "2018-08-11T13:35:02Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > it only enhances whatever feelings are already there. Although sometimes one might be surprised (or in denial) about what’s already there. > [@Lamoral](#): > > I never smoke if I’m feeling shitty. I know it’ll just make me feel shittier. That has the potential to be useful if combined with meditation and introspective exploration. Unpleasant and not at all recreational but useful. > [@Lamoral](#): > > I am positive that if weed had been legal for the past 20-odd years, scientists would have figured out ways by now of tailoring the effects of different strains of weed very very specifically, so that you can know with virtual certainty _exactly_ what kind of effects any given variety of it will produce. To an extent, that’s already happening. If you prefer the calming effects of pot, you can get CBD oil with little/no THC and if you prefer the invigorating effects of pot, you can get sativa shatter with 80% THC content and presumably little/no CBD. As the market grows and matures, you’ll get more professional, organized and capitalized producers who’ll invest in R&D. A possible risk is that those scientists will be tasked with coming up with versions of pot which are more addiction-prone, much like tobacco scientists were. Insofar as psychedelic effects are concerned, I’m not sure it’ll ever be possible to know with virtual exactly what effects any given variety will produce. Their effects on the mind seem to be analogous to relaxed stability in aerodynamics: [Relaxed stability - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relaxed_stability) ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/47 "2018-08-11T13:44:11Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > … I’m not sure it’ll ever be possible to know **with virtual exactly** … (emphasis mine of course) I know it’s just a typo, and I want to note that I agree with and like what you were actually saying, but… I love this new phrase! Alexander Haig lives on! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/48 "2018-08-11T13:48:28Z")
Yeah, if I ever feel like changing my username, I know what I’ll pick. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/49 "2018-08-11T13:50:04Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I find it comical to suggest that Boomers dying off is a significant factor, as that “generation” is associated strongly with a much larger percentage of dopeheads than ever before. I think a factor is the _pre_-boomers dying off. Boomers are largely still alive and in their prime voting years. But even if the Boomers were 45% in favor of legalization versus 20% for pre-boomer (for example), and the successor generations are 55%, public policy can swing toward legalization when the Boomers die off even though the biggest shift occurred with the Boomers. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/50 "2018-08-11T14:25:47Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I find it comical to suggest that Boomers dying off is a significant factor, as that “generation” is associated strongly with a much larger percentage of dopeheads than ever before. Someone else already commented with this idea, but mine is simpler: “a much larger percentage” doesn’t necessarily mean “over 50%”, or “enough to tip the balance whatever enough is”. ---
**Author:** ![BeenJammin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beenjammin/32/448_2.png) [@BeenJammin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeenJammin)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/51 "2018-08-11T14:34:28Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > T1) publicity about marijuana being a sort of wonder drug - heavily overblown,… As overblown as all the pharmaco ad on TV, most of which have enough deleterious side-effects to give Dracula himself pause? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/52 "2018-08-11T15:20:46Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > Is it just me or is “we could be making shitloads of money from the legal sales of it” a _terrible_ reason to legalize a drug? Even if that drug were plain pure water? Might be a shitty reason but it is part of the reason and not the only part. [ol] [li]Hard to find a study that shows pot is worse than alcohol.[/li][li]Harder to keep thinking locking people up for something that isn’t really bad for people makes sense.[/li][li]Profit, extra $in tax money and less money wasted on jailing people.[/li][/ol] Extra bonus: turns out cops in legalized states spend more time on real crime as no longer enforcing stupid pot laws. See Colorado crime studies for this one. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/53 "2018-08-11T16:44:46Z")
The inevitable march of time is what caused the sea change. Or in other words, enough of the old codgers died and were replaced by hipster young’uns. And the old codgers I’m referring to are the Jeff Sessions-type of codger. Not the Willy Nelson kind. Ha. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/54 "2018-08-11T16:57:58Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I think a factor is the _pre_-boomers dying off. Boomers are largely still alive and in their prime voting years. But even if the Boomers were 45% in favor of legalization versus 20% for pre-boomer (for example), and the successor generations are 55%, public policy can swing toward legalization when the Boomers die off even though the biggest shift occurred with the Boomers. Unfortunately my fellow Boomers are a hypocritical generation. Quite a few of them didn’t want their own kids stumbling through school high as a kite like they did. And it’s not like Boomers were all rockin’ on down to Electric Avenue either. It’s the following generations that not only smoked weed but clearly saw the hypocrisy in their parents. In the end I think the Boomers were a wash on the subject, they could have turned this all around years ago if they were a solid bloc in favor of legalization. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/55 "2018-08-11T16:59:43Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Might be a shitty reason but it is part of the reason and not the only part. > [ol] > [li]Hard to find a study that shows pot is worse than alcohol.[/li][li]Harder to keep thinking locking people up for something that isn’t really bad for people makes sense.[/li][li]Profit, extra $in tax money and less money wasted on jailing people.[/li][/ol] > Extra bonus: turns out cops in legalized states spend more time on real crime as no longer enforcing stupid pot laws. See Colorado crime studies for this one. Yep, and when one does notice that a lot of the opposition to Marijuana in America [is in reality due to politics and prejudice](https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2016/03/23/nixons-drug-war-an-excuse-to-lock-up-blacks-and-protesters-continues/#2d1c4bf342c8); it is not hard to see that, if no violence was involved in the “crime”, that all the persons jailed due to marijuana use are our political prisoners. IMHO one big reason why we need to end the irrational war on drugs. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/56 "2018-08-11T19:11:20Z")
Funny thing was when I got old enough to find out my Grandmother liked smoking a little weed. I was probably about 24 and near the end of my occasional pot smoking. Boomers didn’t invent pot smoking though some seem to think they did. I haven’t touch pot in over 20 years, once it is legal in my state, (looks like very soon) I will probably try it again. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/57 "2018-08-11T20:19:06Z")
I’d say the tighter labor market also had a slight effect. Companies will a silly zero tolerance can get frustrated because they can’t hire someone who got caught with a baggie of weed in his college dorm 10 years ago and spent a weekend doing community service as a punishment for the heinous crime. It would be interesting to see if companies are dropping drug tests for jobs that don’t have an serious safety aspect. It’s one thing to have a school bus driver take a drug test, it’s another thing for a 19 year waiter. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2018, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/58 "2018-08-12T00:40:33Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > Whichever way that has happened, I think it’s clear that - in general - public opinion long ago passed some kind of tipping point on the subject of marijuana, and legalization is merely a question of when and of cleaning up some details. Like with SSM, once some states legalize it and the earth does not open up and swallow them, the fear laden opposition won’t get as much traction. BTW in the San Jose free paper the ads for strip clubs seem to have been replaced by ads for pot dispensaries. I don’t know what that says about 21st century America. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2018, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/59 "2018-08-12T00:47:47Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Unfortunately my fellow Boomers are a hypocritical generation. Quite a few of them didn’t want their own kids stumbling through school high as a kite like they did. And it’s not like Boomers were all rockin’ on down to Electric Avenue either. It’s the following generations that not only smoked weed but clearly saw the hypocrisy in their parents. In the end I think the Boomers were a wash on the subject, they could have turned this all around years ago if they were a solid bloc in favor of legalization. If someone truly regrets being high in high school, telling your kids it is a bad idea isn’t being hypocritical, just learning from experience. Which has nothing to do with legalization. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2018, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/60 "2018-08-12T01:05:55Z")
FWIW, I think legalizing gay marriage came from something different. Sure, it’s like legalizing pot in that when me, a Gen-Xer was in high school, I thought would happen some day, but not in my lifetime, but I think there were a couple of specific historical events that contributed to the legalization of gay marriage, but not to pot. Sure, mounting research into its many uses as a legitimate pharmaceutical contributed a lot toward the movement to legalize it, but I don’t think you can point to anything really specific, or name any particular people. Gay marriage you can credit to AIDS and the Silence=Death movement, and two women named[Karen Thompson and Sharon Kowlaski](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_re_Guardianship_of_Kowalski), who spurred the gay marriage movement in the first place. I was there; I remember (and I’ve met them). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392.md?page=4)