Politics & Government

Poll: Have You Changed Your Mind About Legalizing Marijuana?

Supporters of decriminalization are angling to put a new proposition on next year's ballot.

It’s only been three years since California voters rejected a proposition to legalize marijuana, but supporters of legal pot are going to try again in 2014. The Secretary of State announced Thursday that backers of a new initiative can start hustling for the 504,760 signatures they need to get their measure on the November 2014 ballot. They have 150 days.

According to the Sacramento Bee, Californians have changed their minds about legalizing marijuana since 2010; a majority of the state’s voters now support decriminalizing cannabis. Have you changed your opinion?

Here’s the text of the initiative:

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MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Decriminalizes marijuana and hemp use, possession, cultivation, transportation, or distribution. Requires case-by-case review for persons currently charged with or convicted of nonviolent marijuana offenses, for possible sentence modification, amnesty, or immediate release from prison, jail, parole, or probation. Requires case-by-case review of applications to have records of these charges and convictions erased. Requires Legislature to adopt laws to license and tax commercial marijuana sales. Allows doctors to approve or recommend marijuana for patients, regardless of age. Limits testing for marijuana for employment or insurance purposes. Bars state or local aid to enforcement of federal marijuana laws. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government:Reduced costs in the low hundreds of millions of dollars annually to state and local governments related to enforcing certain marijuana-related offenses, handling the related criminal cases in the court system, and incarcerating and supervising certain marijuana offenders. Potential net additional tax revenues in the low hundreds of millions of dollars annually related to the production and sale of marijuana and industrial hemp, a portion of which is required to be spent on marijuana-related research and other activities.




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