Jeff Spicoli’s Time Has Arrived

MJ reports new Pew Research data showing that 52% of Americans support the legalization of marijuana, against 45% opposed, which fits with the recent initiative success in Washington and Colorado (more thorough analysis here.)

Likewise not surprising is the similarity of the trendlines in the graph above as well as below. The data on support for same sex marriage obviously doesn’t go as far back into the past, but in 1996 support for SSM was 27/68, while the graph above it looks to be roughly the same for marijuana legalization in 1996. Indeed it might have been a bit lower. Without downloading and quickly eyeballing the GSS from 1996, I’m left with this story, which states that “there has also been a change among the Baby Boomer generation – half now support legalization, up from 24 percent in 1996.”

There’s a research question in there considering the similarities (and differences) in the two issues, but as I’m a bit addled with jetlag, I’m not very imaginative at the moment. I don’t believe either presage the vaunted coming Democratic majority, an idea I’m skeptical about, but I will note with some pride that my home state of Washington passed initiatives on both this past November, the only state where one can recreationally smoke a bowl at the reception of a same sex marriage.