What Everyone Needs to Know
Should marijuana be legalized? Public opinion in the United States couldn’t be more evenly divided; the latest Gallup poll reports that exactly half of Americans say “Yes.”
Marijuana is forbidden by international treaties and by national and local laws across the globe. But those laws are under challenge in several countries. In the United States, there is no short-term prospect for changes in federal law, but sixteen states allow medical use and recent initiatives to legalize production and nonmedical use garnered more than 40 percent support in four states. California’s Proposition 19 nearly passed in 2010, and as we write a number of states are expected to consider similar measures in 2012.
