Task ForceÆs goal was to develop and advocate for the implementation of alternatives to current drug policy at both the state and federal levels. After extensive study of the issue, the Task Force ultimately recommended that marijuana use should be decriminalized (NYLA).
These attitudes of legal scholars are increasingly echoed in public opinion. For example, an October 2002 Time/CNN poll found that 80 percent of Americans believe that adults should be allowed to use marijuana for medicinal purposes. However, only 34 percent of those polled wanted marijuana to be legalized for general recreational use. That number, however, is almost double what it was in 1986 (Paul, 18). Moreover, over the past six years, 19 different state initiatives to ease regulations on marijuana have become law. These state initiatives are reflected in the fact that 72 percent of Americans polled by Time/CNN believed that people arrested for possessing small amounts of marijuana should be fined rather than jailed (Paul, 18). In addition, in a 2001 survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, a majority (52 percent) of Americans stated that they believed that drug use should be treated as a disease. Only 35 percent believed that marijuana use should be prosecuted as a crime. The greatest number û 74 percent û stated that
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