Public Opinion & Legalization of Marijuana

The purpose of this study was be to examine the trends in public opinion toward the issue of the legalization of the use of marijuana. The research performed for this study focused on the identification of recent (19731987) historical trends in public attitudes toward the legalization of marijuana use, and the social and political reasons underlying these trends. The goal of this literature review was to provide a basis for assessment of the research performed.

In developing a basis for the assessment of the research performed for this study, literature was reviewed in relation to four major areas of relevant interest. The first of these relevant interest areas is the public health perspective within which the marijuana issue exists. The overall drug problem in the United States, of which marijuana uses is but a part, is the second relevant interest area. The issues involved in the drug legalization controversy in the United States constitute the third relevant interest area. Lastly, the longterm history of the role of marijuana in American society is reviewed. Where the research performed for this study deals specifically with recent (19731987) historical trends in public attitudes towards marijauna, this section of the literature review considers comparable trends in such attitudes prior to 1973.

The Public Health Perspective Marijuana use, as a public issue, experienced a metamorphosis in the mid1960s, in which the Americ

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development of more negative societal perceptions of alcohol use. Similar effects on family members have been observed with respect to individuals who abuse drugs other than alcohol (Homowy, 1988). These effects have strengthened negative public perceptions of drug use generally. Negative public perceptions of marijuana use are also strengthened by such findings, although the evidence linking marijuana use to such effects is not nearly so strong as is the evidence involving other drugs (Homowy, 1988). Public attitudes toward tobacco use have also evolved from a generally positive to a generally negative position. Because tobacco use is not implicated in highway carnage, however, the negative perceptions of tobacco use have more often been manifested in behavioral changes by individuals who stop smoking, than they have in the public condemnation of tobacco users, or in the prohibition of tobacco smoking. Death from smoking, after all, is a 20to30 year process, as opposed to the blinking of an eye on a public highway. Smoking tobacco, particularly in the form of cigarettes, creates a risk of sudden cardiac arrest for smokers three times higher than the comparable risk for a nonsmoker (Koop, 1988). Approximately 85 percent

Category: Psychology - P