# 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:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**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 22, 2018, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/81 "2018-08-22T13:59:30Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > First, the prescription drugs heavily advertised on TV (a marketing tool I don’t support) have gone through rigorous trials to demonstrate efficacy. Good for you! …not so good for all the people who will [get cancer from an FDA-approved drug.](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-pharmaceuticals-china-insight/toxin-at-heart-of-drug-recall-shows-holes-in-medical-safety-net-idUSKCN1L71D8?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews) :smack: ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/82 "2018-08-22T14:08:01Z")
> [@BeenJammin](#): > > Good for you! …not so good for all the people who will [get cancer from an FDA-approved drug.](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-pharmaceuticals-china-insight/toxin-at-heart-of-drug-recall-shows-holes-in-medical-safety-net-idUSKCN1L71D8?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews) :smack: Did you actually _read_ your “cite”? > [@](#): > > China’s Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical (600521.SS), which produces bulk ingredients for drugmakers, told its customers in late June it had found NDMA in its valsartan, an off-patent blood pressure drug originally developed by Novartis (NOVN.S). > > The discovery means that some of the 10 billion pills containing valsartan sold worldwide last year to prevent heart attacks and strokes had traces of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), classified as a probable human carcinogen. **No one has been reported as sickened by the toxin** , once used in the production of liquid rocket fuel. > > Regulators and industry experts say the toxin almost certainly was introduced when **Huahai changed the way it produced valsartan in 2012** - a modification that was signed off on by the European body that sets standards. Subsequent inspections by European, U.S. and Chinese regulators also found no problem. > > The FDA is also going on that hypothesis, said Janet Woodcock, director of its Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. She stressed the investigation was still going on. > > “This (NDMA) was not what you look for in an inspection,” Woodcock said in an interview. “If you don’t test for this you’re not going to have an idea that it’s in there, and you’re not going to see it on an inspection.” > > The European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines (EDQM), responsible for setting manufacturing standards, told Reuters it was aware the solvent was being used when it approved the changed process, but that NDMA as a by-product was unexpected and not tested for. > > \*\*Detecting NDMA would have required gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, a very sensitive level of testing, an EDQM spokeswoman said. > > “These techniques are not normally used routinely to test pharmaceutical products,” she said. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/83 "2018-08-22T16:05:57Z")
So much Whig historiography so far. What actually happened was that crime skyrocketed during the 1960s. This lead to the government trying to respond with restrictions on drugs. These restrictions were very popular with voters. Crime peaked in 1993 and so did public opinion against marijuana. Since crime has plummeted voters are now much more concerned about other issues and people have become more open to legal weed. If crime goes back up, much of the support for drug legalization will evaporate. ---
**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 22, 2018, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/84 "2018-08-22T17:21:51Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > So much Whig historiography so far. > What actually happened was that crime skyrocketed during the 1960s… The only U.S. connection between crime and Cannabis started when it was banned in 1937. Then people began going to jail for this victim-less crime. Any connection between crime fear mongering and Cannabis opinion is engendered only in the reefer madness mindset and associated propaganda. But then again sheeple will be sheeple, so from a strictly opinion-based standpoint, there probably is some unfortunate truth to your idea. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392/85 "2018-08-23T13:20:53Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > So much Whig historiography so far. > What actually happened was that crime skyrocketed during the 1960s. This lead to the government trying to respond with restrictions on drugs. These restrictions were very popular with voters. Crime peaked in 1993 and so did public opinion against marijuana. Since crime has plummeted voters are now much more concerned about other issues and people have become more open to legal weed. If crime goes back up, much of the support for drug legalization will evaporate. The intensity of criminal prosecution against weed in the sixties wasn’t so much a reaction against increasing crime levels as it was an attack on certain demographics who were considered political opponents of Richard Nixon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-changed-public-opinion-regarding-marijuana-legalization/819392.md?page=4)