Another reason to legalize marijuana

from sdcitybeat.com

Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014

North Park shooting compels us to renew our call for decriminalization

By CityBeat Staff






The aftermath in North Park 
- Photo by David Rolland

A little after noon last Friday, two men—at least one of them armed—entered a building on Ray Street in North Park, where a medicinal-marijuana dispensary had, just a few days earlier, begun operating in violation of city law. Moments later, one of them, an 18-year-old, was dead, and a dispensary employee lay wounded, a bullet lodged in his gut (he’ll be OK). The second suspect got away with a bag full of weed, police say, likely fleeing on wheels through an alley between Ray and Grim streets. Folks who work on Ray, a thriving visual-arts district located one block from CityBeat’s office, were rattled as police taped off the area to investigate.

The incident occurred the day after people lined up at City Hall in hopes of eventually opening legal medicinal-marijuana dispensaries under San Diego’s recently adopted ordinance, which allows for a ceiling of 36 dispensaries citywide, or as many as four per City Council district.

In other words, the incident occurred while San Diego is still in limbo regarding legal distribution of marijuana for medicinal purposes and while most of the country is still in a prohibition era that, much like when alcohol was prohibited nearly a century ago, has been plagued by violence. An obvious difference is that much of the violence surrounding marijuana prohibition has occurred in Mexico.

Whether the shootout in North Park is a one-time, isolated occurrence or a sign of things to come is an open question, but it certainly doesn’t do much to allay the concerns of people who are worried that medicinal-marijuana dispensaries will be targets for criminals. Advocates for safe access to medicinal marijuana are able to point to studies that show there’s no evidence that dispensaries have increased the frequency of crime, but we don’t know what will happen in the future.

In any case, the incident compels us to repeat our call for the blanket legalization of marijuana. Since the suspect who fled did so with marijuana in hand, police believe the target was product, not cash. Were marijuana legal and easily accessible, no one would commit armed robbery to steal it. This is why we don’t see young men holding up liquor stores for alcohol or convenience stores for cigarettes. They do hold up stores to get cash, however, and because banks are leery of doing business with marijuana dispensaries—thanks to their ambiguous legal nature— dispensaries are liable to have a lot of cash on the premises, potentially making them a target.

Look, we’re not trying to be alarmist; we don’t believe three-dozen marijuana dispensaries are going to turn San Diego into the Wild West. We’re simply adding the implications of Friday’s event to a long list of reasons why we think California should follow Colorado and Washington’s lead.

The negative impacts of the war on marijuana have been well-documented—mass and racially unequal incarceration, billions upon billions in costs to taxpayers—and the government has nothing to show for it: Demand is sky-high, and supply is plentiful.

Legalization would cut violent Mexican cartels out of the American market and allow the police to devote more energy to more important matters. The money saved by not arresting, prosecuting and locking up offenders of marijuana laws—in addition to the trainloads of money that would be made by taxing a regulated marijuana trade—could be spent on education, social services and infrastructure. Meanwhile, the hemp industry could potentially boom.

Marijuana may come with some health risks, but the unhealthful downsides to alcohol, cigarettes and high-fructose corn syrup are many and welldocumented, but those drugs (yes, we just classified high-fructose corn syrup as a drug) are legal. The situation is loaded with hypocrisy.

Do we think the country would be better off if everyone was high half the time? No. But we don’t believe that would be the result. Anyone who wants it now can get it. According to a 2013 Pew Research Center study, 48 percent of Americans had tried marijuana, but only 12 percent of those people say they’d used it within the previous year. While that number strikes us as low, it tells us that, by and large, if Americans don’t think it’s good for them to do frequently, they won’t.

That same study revealed, for the first time ever, that a majority of Americans think marijuana should be legal.

This Cop Says It’s Time to Legalize All Drugs

from psmag.com

BY DIANE GOLDSTEIN • April 30, 2014 • 2:00 PM

Who exactly is prohibition supposed to be helping? After many years of enforcing drug laws as a police officer, Diane Goldstein’s experience with an addicted family member changed her attitude for good.

•

I was a police officer for 20 years, enforcing drug laws in California and thinking I was doing my part for society. But what made me think properly about drug use for the first time was my experience with my older brother, Billy. I had watched him struggle with a lifelong problem with drugs. But I still did not understand what  it meant to be Billy until my husband convinced me to open up my heart and our home to save him in 2002.

It was in this intimacy of watching Billy try, during the year he lived with us, to live up to the expectations of society and those he loved that I realized that our society’s portrayal of people with chronic drug problems was both damaging and morally flawed.

By society’s standard, my brother was a criminal. His struggles with addiction taught me many things. He had many years of sobriety, interspersed with the setbacks that addiction specialists know so often come with the condition. But because of an emphasis by the court system on abstinence-only drug programs, and an emphasis on punishment over progress, these normal and accepted setbacks in recovery were exacerbated by harsh penalties. Because of Billy’s felony convictions for drugs, he was unemployable. He lacked health care until we stepped in. Without us, my brother would have been on the streets. Yet despite our help, my brother passed away from an accidental overdose of psychotropic medications and alcohol.

After having my eyes opened to the realities of drug use, I realized we could not arrest our way out of this problem. I joined Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a group of law enforcement officials opposed to the war on drugs. Some people are surprised to find police, prosecutors, judges, and others arguing for legalizing drugs, but in many ways we are the best positioned to see the injustices and ineffectiveness of the criminal justice system up close.

Decriminalization laws can do many good things. They reduce law enforcement and incarceration costs, allow police to focus on more pressing matters and keep casual users out of a criminal justice system that already destroys far too many lives. However, LEAP supports full drug legalization because of what decriminalization doesn’t do.

We’ve seen how federal grants and civil asset forfeiture laws (whereby police can take your property and use or sell it for their own benefit, even if you’re never charged with a crime) encourage police to go after drug offenders while real criminals roam free. We’ve seen people die of overdose. We’ve seen people go to prison who had no business being there. And we’ve seen that none of this has reduced drug use or addiction. In spite of more than 40 years of the war on drugs—and the trillion dollars we’ve spent—Americans now have access to drugs that are cheaper, more potent, and just as readily available as when the drug war started. Who exactly is prohibition supposed to be helping?

But that doesn’t mean that everything we’ve tried has failed. As we work toward a world in which drugs are legalized and regulated, we can take smaller steps toward smarter drug policies by supporting decriminalization laws and by implementing harm reduction strategies, which address drug problems using a public health model that reduces death, disease, and addiction.

In America we practice a different form of decriminalization than, for example, in Portugal, where you can possess up to 10 days’ worth of any drug with only an administrative or civil penalty. Decriminalization laws vary by state but generally mean that first-time offenders will not go to prison or be burdened with a criminal record for possession of a small amount of drugs for personal consumption. But even in states that have liberalized their drug statutes, there are still many collateral consequences for something as simple as a drug conviction—including the potential loss of federal aid for student loans, denial of social welfare benefits such as housing and food stamps, denial of voting privileges or professional licenses, and termination of parental rights.

Decriminalization laws can do many good things. They reduce law enforcement and incarceration costs, allow police to focus on more pressing matters and keep casual users out of a criminal justice system that already destroys far too many lives.

However, LEAP supports full drug legalization because of what decriminalization doesn’t do. It doesn’t set up a system of regulated purity, so users don’t know what they’re putting in their bodies or how strong it is, increasing the risk of overdose. And if someone does overdose, their friends may be afraid to call for help for fear of being prosecuted. Decriminalization doesn’t enact age restrictions on sales or stop the violence generated by upheavals and turf wars caused by law enforcement intervention. It doesn’t necessarily prevent large racial disparities because of the wide discretion in charging by prosecutors. And it does nothing to impact the enormous profits being made from drugs by violent criminal gangs.

People working in public health understand that harm reduction strategies produce positive health outcomes. Even law enforcement is beginning to understand the necessity of thinking outside the “drug war” box to save lives by implementing and supporting programs that use the precepts of reducing harm to those using drugs. By supporting “Good Samaritan” laws that allow witnesses to an overdose to save a life by calling 911 without threat of criminal prosecution, criminal justice professionals are recognizing that the threat of criminal sanctions has contributed to too many deaths.

Seattle, which gives officers the ability to connect low-level, non-violent drug dealers and users with treatment and services as an alternative to jail, is an example of a law enforcement agency using harm reduction strategies to improve the lives of those struggling with addiction. The Quincy, Massachusetts, police department is another. By mandating that its officers carry naloxone, a cheap and effective drug that can reverse opioid overdoses, they saved more than 200 lives in just over three years. Imagine how much difference it would make if police departments across the country adopted a similar model.

It is clear to me that implementing decriminalization and harm reduction models are vital steps on the way to a smarter drug policy and should be supported. But to stop there is short-sighted, as it will leave unresolved the violence associated with the illicit market, as well as the other inevitable consequences of an ineffective drug policy based on politics, rather than what we know works.

Isn’t it time that we demand that our government use science, best practices, and compassion to design drug policy?

---

This post originally appeared on Substance, a Pacific Standard partner site, as “Cops Like Me Say Legalize All Drugs. Here’s Why.”

Lieutenant Commander Diane Goldstein is a board member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of law enforcement officials opposed to the war on drugs.

Medical Marijuana is Still the Best Deal on Pot in Colorado

from  http://fivethirtyeight.com/

By WALT HICKEY

Four months into legal recreational marijuana in Colorado, the market for medical cannabis is still by far the most cost-effective way to purchase pot in the state, a FiveThirtyEight analysis has found.

Colorado legalized the sale of recreational marijuana in 2012, setting the stage for the first open recreational marijuana economy in the United States. The first sales of recreational cannabis began this year. The medical marijuana economy had been established in Colorado for several years already,¹ and has continued to be robust.

To see how prices compare across the two markets, I looked at data provided by WeedMaps,² a site that posts locations, menus and prices of recreational and medical cannabis for sale in legal areas. The data set comprises 19,484 cannabis flower prices from 814 Colorado medical dispensaries starting in February 2013 and 1,940 cannabis flower prices from 104 Colorado recreational dispensaries, which opened Jan. 1, 2014. I found that at every price point, medical marijuana is cheaper than recreational pot.

There are a number of reasons for this, but the primary ones are an unexpected decrease in supply in these first few months after recreational marijuana legalization and a series of excise and sales taxes levied by the state of Colorado and the City and County of Denver.³

While it’s still too early to make generalizations about the success of the recreational regime in Colorado, some interesting trends emerged from my analysis of the marijuana pricing curve.

Cannabis flowers are sold by weight, typically in five quantities. Customers above the age of 21 can purchase as little as a gram of marijuana and as much as an ounce at retail stores.⁴ (There are 28.35 grams in an ounce.) Typically, there’s a discount when cannabis is purchased in larger quantities.

Below are the median prices of medical and recreational marijuana in Colorado. At smaller quantities, the price difference is stark: An eighth of an ounce of recreational cannabis is about 50 percent more expensive than an eighth of an ounce of medical cannabis.

Looking at the unit price, we observe that the median per-gram price is substantially lower for medical cannabis. For quantities larger than a gram, the median recreational price per gram ranges between $7.00 and $8.50, while the median medical price per gram is consistently about $5.60.

To understand these price differentials, I spoke to Kayvan Khalatbari, co-founder of Denver Relief, a marijuana dispensary. Khalatbari is also a principal at Denver Relief Consulting, which advises new and existing marijuana businesses in both the medical and recreational markets.

Khalatbari identified two main reasons for the pricing distinction. The first is the additional taxes levied on recreational marijuana. Medical marijuana sold in Denver carries a sales tax of 7.72 percent. Recreational marijuana carries that tax plus a 10 percent marijuana state sales tax and 3.5 percent marijuana sales tax from the City and County of Denver applied at the point of sale. And that’s on top of a 15 percent excise tax applied when a wholesaler sells cannabis in bulk to a retailer.

But if that were the whole story — taxes make things more expensive, tell your friends — it wouldn’t be particularly interesting. Since the sales taxes are applied at the point of sale, we would only expect that 15 percent excise tax to make a difference between the medical price and the recreational price in this data. Yet we see a price difference of upwards of 30 percent across the board.

The second reason Khalatbari cited is a bottleneck in the recreational market. He said that while the state has awarded more than 300 licenses for recreational businesses, only about 15 to 20 percent have received the necessary local approval. As a result, the vast majority of state-licensed recreational dispensaries aren’t in business yet. In addition, Khalatbari said the industry has been slow to scale up production, as many of the expansions in progress – some marijuana-growing facilities are expanding up to 100,000 square feet in size — have seen delays, coupled with the six-month lead time for cultivating the plants.

There’s also the fact that not all marijuana is grown equal. There are wide disparities in quality that we can observe by looking at pricing percentiles. The marijuana market in Colorado shows strong similarities to the market for beer — there are many different qualities and brands available at many different price points, and a large segment of the consumer population has acquired a taste for a product of a certain quality. For marijuana, this means some firms, including Denver Relief, have become private boutique clubs with capped memberships and substantially higher prices for higher-quality cannabis, while other firms target the broader segment of the consumer and tourist population with low- to mid-grade cannabis, priced accordingly.

The chart below the prices of different quantities of marijuana at the 10th and 90th price percentiles, in addition to median prices, for both medical and recreational cannabis.

The medical market has a lower and tighter price curve than the brand-new recreational market.

Of particular interest in the recreational marijuana data is the difference between the low and high ends of the market. For example, at the half-ounce level, the 10th percentile price is 40 percent cheaper than the median price, whereas the 90th percentile price is a whopping 90 percent more expensive than the median price. What gives?

Khalatbari volunteered two theories of why this is happening, both of which seem plausible. The first is that the demand for high-quality recreational cannabis is currently exceeding the supply. The second is that many of the recreational cannabis growers, in anticipation of legalization, automated their production process. When that happens, he said, “you’re going to see a degradation in product,” which then means a larger segment of the recreational cannabis market could be of somewhat lower — and thus cheaper — quality.

Some might wonder whether the recreational marijuana is just better than the medical marijuana — or altogether different stuff. However, it does it appear as though the two markets are selling the same products. I pulled the records for Sour Diesel, a popular strain of cannabis essentially around the 75th price percentile on both the recreational and medical side, and looked at the median prices in each market.

Consumers appear to have noticed that it’s cheaper to purchase medical marijuana. “We’re starting to see more people go and get their medical cards back,” Khalatbari said. “A lot of people ditched them at the end of last year and said, ‘I’m not going to renew, recreational will be here and all will be well,’ but then they’re seeing these higher prices and the lack of product availability.”

Obtaining a medical marijuana card involves some annual costs — typically between $45 and $75 for a doctor’s visit and $15 for the Colorado application fee — but these costs can be made back quickly when factoring in the additional taxes and general price hikes on recreational marijuana. If you’re buying an ounce of marijuana at the median price, you’ll save $60, even before sales taxes, if you go the medical route.

When Colorado passed recreational marijuana legalization, supporters sold it to non-smokers by saying the recreational regime would bring in additional tax revenue. The fact that prices for recreational cannabis are higher due to factors unrelated to direct taxation, and that those prices are turning some recreational users back into medical ones, signals a potential problem for the public coffers.

And given the focus on revenue, it’s interesting that Colorado lowered its medical marijuana application fee from $35 to $15 in mid-December. If the state wanted to incentivize people to pay continual taxes on recreational pot instead of a one-time fee for medical pot, slashing that up-front cost was probably not the best strategy.

The state obviously still cares about collecting taxes, and architects of the marijuana legalization effort both in Colorado and nationally have a vested interest in demonstrating that legal cannabis can be a revenue-generator for states. Since it’s considered fairly easy for a healthy person to obtain a medical marijuana card, recreational prices pushing people back toward medical in the first four months of legal pot in Colorado may not be the best thing for the movement.

It’s far too early to make a conclusive judgment on the industry’s ability to deliver those revenues. Perhaps after the recreational market scales up production, and prices there start to match those in the medical market, consumers will decide that paying the taxes for recreational pot is worth not having to get a cannabis prescription.

Retired Supreme Court Justice Stevens says Legalize Marijuana

from thedailychronic



By Phillip Smith

April 25, 2014

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said on Thursday that the federal government should follow the lead of states that have legalized marijuana. That makes him the first Supreme Court justice — retired or otherwise — to endorse legalization.

WASHINGTON, DC — Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said on Thursday that the federal government should follow the lead of states that have legalized marijuana. That makes him the first Supreme Court justice — retired or otherwise — to endorse legalization.

“Yes,” Stevens replied when asked by NPR’s Scott Simon as to whether marijuana should be legalized under federal law. “I really think that that’s another instance of public opinion [that's] changed. And recognize that the distinction between marijuana and alcoholic beverages is really not much of a distinction. Alcohol, the prohibition against selling and dispensing alcoholic beverages has I think been generally, there’s a general consensus that it was not worth the cost. And I think really in time that will be the general consensus with respect to this particular drug.”

This isn’t the first time Justice Stevens has taken a progressive stand on drug policy. In a 2011 interview in Time magazine, the bow-tied jurist slammed harsh drug sentencing.

“The use of mandatory minimum statutes has had a very adverse effect on the overall system, and I think generally, the so-called war on drugs has emphasized more-severe punishment than is appropriate throughout the country,” Stevens said then. “There are some instances where penalties are so disproportionate that they could well violate the Eighth Amendment.”

And although Stevens authored the Supreme Court opinion in Gonzales v. Raich upholding federal preeminence over state medical marijuana laws, he has also called it “most unwise” to prohibit the medical use of the drug.

Stevens’ latest remarks were cheered by Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority.

“Justice Stevens is right. Public opinion is shifting rapidly in favor of marijuana legalization,” said Angell. “Polls now consistently show that a clear majority of the public supports ending prohibition and, as this trend continues, we’ll start to see more prominent people and politicians saying it’s time to change the laws.”

Stevens served as Supreme Court justice from 1975 to 2010.

 John Paul Stevens , marijuana legalization , SCOTUS

by Phillip Smith

'If voted to power, will legalize drugs for addicts'

from indiatimes

TNN | Apr 23, 2014, 06.10 AM IST




LUDHIANA: At a time when other candidates are talking about drug addiction as a menace, those hooked to drugs may find solace in the promises of independent candidate Rajiv Kalra. If voted to power, he would seek opening of government authorized vends for selling of poppy husk. Claiming that he was not supporting drugs, the 42-year-old first timer, says he was only trying to deal with the issue of drugs in a "more realistic manner". 

Adding that he was not promising anything illogical, Kalra says he would seek setting up of government authorized vends in Punjab in lines with Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, which he said have been set up with a purpose to help drug addicts, who can not be cured. "If such vends can be in other states why can't these be set up in Punjab?" he asks. 

Kalra maintained that other candidates and politicians were doing mere lip service by criticizing the drug menace and not making any efforts in finding a practical solution to it. "Several people in the rural areas have been taking poppy husk and opium for the medicinal purpose. These drugs, taken in a limited quantity are not harmful when compared to new age drugs. These drugs have a drastic impact on their life and have destroyed several lives and families in the villages of Punjab," he sums up. 

Kalra claimed that the objective of such authorised vends was not to encourage drug addiction but help out addicts, who could not be cured by the doctors and were thus given licenses on which they could get some limited quantity, for their survival. 

"In the first place, I would get free treatment for the drug addicts. But for those who could not be treated, I would seek license system," clarified Kalra. Kalra claimed, he has never consumed drugs in his life and the sole objective of him contesting the poll was to help people who are drug addicts. "I am contesting elections for these people who are suffering and it is only on their insistence that I jumped into fray," claims Kalra. 

Kalra may have shown good intentions while making promise but his claims have not gone down well with many people. "There may be such provisions in other states, but any such move is not going to help the cause in the long run. For a state like Punjab where drug addiction is a major issue, providing authorised vends may backfire," said advocate Deepjot Singh. 

An official in the civil hospital informed that these licenses were given to the habitual opium users so that they can be provided with a limited quantity of opium. The quantity was to be reduced in a scientific manner for their de addiction. However later de addiction centers were started thus practice was stopped in the year 1996. 

Philadelphia prep school grads busted for allegedly running drug ring

from cbsnews
CBS NEWSApril 22, 2014, 8:49 AM

Two former students of a prestigious prep school outside Philadelphia were hauled away in handcuffs Monday, accused of masterminding an elaborate drug ring that catered to affluent students in Philadelphia's suburbs known as the "The Main Line."

Neil Scott, 25, and Timothy Brooks, 18, graduates of Haverford School, where tuition costs nearly $35,000 a year, used their privileged connections to recruit dealers as well as customers, investigators said. According to court documents, investigators learned about "The Main Line takeover project" through text messages where the two prep school graduates discussed plans to take over marijuana sales in the Philadelphia suburbs. Police began investigating in January after receiving anonymous tips, reports CBS News correspondent Vinita Nair.

"Scott and Brooks employed students from five local high schools and three colleges as what they call sub-dealers to distribute cocaine, marijuana, hash oil, ecstasy," Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said.

Eleven people, including two juveniles, were charged, but it's the alleged suppliers who are at the center of the investigation.

Authorities say the men ran the operation like a business, demanding dealers move at least a pound of marijuana a week. The four-month investigation revealed that Scott would have large shipments of the drug delivered from California to his apartment.

Investigators seized a stash of marijuana, cocaine, more than $11,000 in cash and three weapons including a loaded AR-15 rifle.

"This was not a game. These people were in business," Ferman said. "They were in business to make money, and they were going to do whatever they needed to do to make sure that no one threatened their business."

Brooks' attorney Greg Pagano claimed his client was taken advantage of after dropping out of college.

"He was at home, he was idle and suffering from some depression," Pagano said.

As for Scott, his lawyer Tom Egan said his client is well aware of legal ramifications.

"The main concern for him is how the mandatory minimums are going to operate if he's indeed guilty of the offenses," Egan said.

Scott is being held on $1 million bail, and Brooks was released Monday after posting $250,000 bail. Both are due back in court next month.

© 2014 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Marijuana legalization vote carries heavy weight

from floridatoday

Terri Friedlander, FOR FLORIDA TODAY;12:26 a.m. EDT April 20, 2014

Last year, the joke was on me when I praised a well-designed, colorful poster made by a middle school student that touted "420." When they stopped laughing like hyenas, one pupil informed me that 420 is a well-known marijuana code and April 20 is widely regarded as Marijuana Appreciation Day. Oops.

From the hippie culture of the 1970s to the timeless popularity of Bob Marley, kids experiment with pot. The broader question still unanswered is how the increased availability of medical cannabis might affect today's teenagers and schools?

This week, Maryland's governor signed a bill making it the 21st state to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes. In November, Florida voters will have the chance to vote on legalizing medical marijuana.

But, has there been any valid research about the potentially devastating effects this might have on the already chronic drug problems in high schools here and across America?

The widely acclaimed, hit cable show "Breaking Bad" garnered many awards for its dark story about middle-age Walt, an uncompromising chemistry teacher who learns he has terminal lung cancer. With mounting bills, Walt encounters a former burn-out student, Jesse, and they begin cooking crystal meth in an RV. Set in New Mexico, the show repeatedly depicts marijuana as the gateway drug for the slew of addicts in its path.

Some teens test their limits and arrive in the classroom with glassy, bloodshot eyes. Kids who get stoned lose all motivation to do well in school. Expulsions occur when they're caught in possession, but accurate statistics are difficult to obtain. Now, add to the mix, the temptation of cannabis as a legalized substance, and it seems like a recipe for disaster.

According to the website drugabuse.gov, 9 percent of users become addicted to marijuana.

A close friend whose son attends high school on Long Island has been living every parent's worst nightmare for the past two years. In ninth grade, her son began sneaking out at night, skipping school, failing classes and stealing money from her wallet. The teenager fell in with the wrong crowd and began a downward spiral that could not be stopped without professional help. His addiction began with smoking pot.

Get help if you suspect your teen is involved with drugs. And think hard about the pros and cons before voting on the medical marijuana measure this fall.

Terri Friedlander can be reached at terrifriedlander.com.

Here Are All The Drugs Americans Want To Legalize

from huffpost


Posted: 04/17/2014 7:25 am EDT Updated: 04/17/2014 10:59 am EDT

By Emily Swanson 

A majority of Americans support legalizing marijuana, polls now show. But that's where support for drug legalization ends. A series of HuffPost/YouGov surveys conducted over the past several months found that few Americans want to repeal the laws against any other illegal drug.

In a HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted in February, 51 percent said they support legalizing marijuana, and 70 percent said they wanted to legalize medical marijuana.

But two other HuffPost/YouGov polls conducted in January and last Novemberfound that few Americans want to go further. For most of the drugs they were asked about, the level of support for legalization was about 10 percent or less.

Support for legalizing marijuana divides along party lines, with 62 percent of Democrats, 52 percent of independents and only 32 percent of Republicans backing legal pot in the most recent poll. But the idea of legalizing other drugs draws little support across the political spectrum. While Republicans tended to favor legalization the least, support among Democrats and independents didn't reach 20 percent for any drug and was lower for most.

The age gap on marijuana also shrank dramatically for most other drugs. Younger Americans were for the most part only slightly more likely than older Americans to back legalization of other drugs, even though those under age 65 are much more likely than those over 65 to support legalizing marijuana.

Just because Americans don't want these other drugs to be legal, however, doesn't mean they think current drug laws are fair. The November poll found that while few wanted to legalize drugs like heroin and cocaine, more than half said a first-time conviction for possession of those drugs should not result in jail time. Another HuffPost/YouGov poll, conducted last August, found that only a third of Americans support mandatory minimum sentences. Not surprisingly, then, a HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted in January last year found only 1 in 5 Americans think the benefits of the war on drugs have been worth the costs.

The HuffPost/YouGov polls were conducted Feb. 13-14 and Jan. 29-30 this year and Nov. 23-24 last year, each among 1,000 U.S. adults using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population. Factors considered include age, race, gender, education, employment, income, marital status, number of children, voter registration, time and location of Internet access, interest in politics, religion and church attendance.

The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling.

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