The Associated Press and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago last week released results of a new survey showing that 61% of Americans support marijuana legalization, a record high total. At the same time 53% of the 1,042 respondents said they believe that marijuana is a moderately serious or extremely serious problem in their communities.

A third of 639 respondents said that marijuana should be legal with no restrictions while 42% of these respondents said that there should be restrictions on the amount of marijuana that can be purchased. Nearly a quarter, 24%, said that marijuana should be available only by prescription.

When asked whether physicians and dentists “regularly prescribe pain relievers more than medically needed, 21% of all 1,042 respondents said all or most do, 45% said some do, and 33% said only a few or none do.

Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents also said that if “substance users” are either black or poor they are extremely likely to be convicted of drug possession. For whites only 30% said a conviction was extremely likely and for the rich a conviction was extremely likely just 24% of the time.

Politically, 48% of respondents said they either are or lean to the Democratic party and 35% said they are or lean to the Republican party. Another 18% identified themselves as independents.

The AP-NORC report is available here.

Here are excerpts from other recent cannabis-related news stories.

Is Marijuana Really a Gateway Drug?
The legalization of medical marijuana is often clouded by social, political, and even religious controversies that obscure the scientific facts that should go without debating. Anti-marijuana activists always denote marijuana as a ‘gateway’ drug for hard drug use and the vicious cycle of addiction. In fact, it is not marijuana but alcohol which is actually the ‘gateway’ for substance abuse addiction, including cocaine and heroin addiction.

Some research studies have pointed to marijuana as gateway drug to harder drug abuse, while other studies have questioned the reliability of the gateway theory.

The gateway theory has been proposed based on co-dependence of other drugs among cocaine and methamphetamine users who also use marijuana. These studies have implicated marijuana’s possible causal role that biologically sensitizes the drug users to try other drugs, and get them addicted to harder drugs.

If this notion is true, it doesn’t make sense for most of the addicts who never used marijuana. If we look into the reality, most marijuana users do not progress to hard druguse. In reality, alcohol and tobacco addiction can be a gateway to other drug use. One study has concluded that alcohol, and even tobacco dependence, can progress to cannabis dependence. Nonetheless, marijuana-only use is not linked with progression to other drug use.

Read more at The Marijuana Times.

In Israel, Seeds of a Heady Future for Medical Marijuana
With its moat, wall, barbed wire, armed guards and security cameras, the facility could be mistaken for a military base if it weren’t for the pungent odor of marijuana in the air.

Here, on the outskirts of a quiet village in northern Israel, 50,000 plants of 230 varieties grow at the country’s second-largest medical cannabis plantation.

“For cannabis, we are in the promised land with a good climate, 300 days of sunshine each year and perfect levels of humidity,” said Tamir Gedo, head of BOL Pharma, a company authorized by the Health Ministry to grow and distribute medical cannabis.

The recreational use of cannabis is illegal in the Jewish state, but for the past 10 years its therapeutic use has not only been permitted but also encouraged.

Last year, doctors prescribed the herb to about 25,000 patients suffering from cancer, epilepsy, post-traumatic stress and degenerative diseases.

The purpose is not to cure them but to alleviate their symptoms.

Read more at The Times of Israel.

The 10 Most Marijuana-Friendly States in the USA
Which are the marijuana-friendliest states in the nation? Where would a pot person want to buy a home and settle down?

The online national real estate search site Estately has taken a crack at answering those burning questions. The site’s blog’s Ultimate Lists cranks out all sorts of creative comparative data—cities with the most romantic homes for sale, states with the most pizza—and now it’s done the same with weed.

To measure marijuana-friendliness, Estately looked at the number of marijuana users, the price of pot (both high and low quality), and the legal status of marijuana (legal, decriminalized, medical). It also looked to the web and social media, measuring cannabis-related Google searches and using Facebook user data on interest on pot-themed publications. Estately used a 100-point scale to weigh each state on each of the five categories to arrive at its rankings.

Read more at AlterNet.

Medical Marijuana Initiative Will Not Go Forward This Year
A ballot initiative to legalize medical marijuana will not be an option for Utah voters this year, or next.

After neither medical marijuana bill even managed to make it to the House floor, many were expecting the promised initiative to be on the ballot for voters this coming November.

But the initiative, which will look similar to the failed Senate Bill 73, sponsored by Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Saratoga Springs, had to be pushed back to 2018.

In the aftermath of the legislative session, even many marijuana patients and advocates were confused about why the bills were killed, and what the next steps are for those who want to legalize the drug for medical purposes.

Medical marijuana patients gathered on Saturday to get answers from representatives from Together for Responsible Use and Cannabis Education (TRUCE) and Libertas Institute about what the next steps are in the fight to legalize medical marijuana.

Read more at the [Provo, Utah] Daily Herald.

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