Marijuana : Latest News
The history of marijuana in the last century has been a slow process toward social acceptance.
In the 1936 movie “Reefer Madness,” marijuana smokers were portrayed morally-depraved pot fiends .
In the 1950s, marijuana was considered to be not just a dangerous drug, but a stepping stone to the use of heroin or even more dangerous controlled substances.
In 1979, 27 percent of Americans favored legalization, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll at the time.
Gradually, but consistently, social acceptance of marijuana continued to climb. By the 1980s, over 80 percent of high school students said they had easy access to marijuana. By 1988, no less an authority than the Drug Enforcement Administration’s administrative law judge, Francis Young, concluded that “marijuana may well be the safest psychoactive substance commonly used in human history.”
A 2009 CBS News poll found that more Americans now support legalization. Forty-one percent said they think marijuana should be made legal and 52 percent are opposed. That’s even more than in a CBS News poll in March when 31 percent said they were in favor of legalization in all cases with another seven percent saying they would favor legalization if marijuana were taxed and the money went to projects.
Today the potent smell of marijuana legalization is in the air.
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/2741-204_162-664.html