LEGALIZE POT? MORE AMERICANS ARE SAYING IT'S OK

A generation ago, the legalization of marijuana didn't generate much
discussion beyond activists and college students. The vast majority of
Americans just said no.

According to a new Gallup poll, however, about 50 percent of those
surveyed support legalization of marijuana - the first time that's
happened since their researchers started asking the question back in
1969. What used to be an automatic "no" is becoming a much more open
question.

There are a few qualifiers, to be sure. The survey's margin of error
was 4 percent. Statistician Nate Silver, who writes the influential
FiveThirtyEight blog, says it's likely that marijuana's supporters are
still in the minority, judging from other surveys conducted this year.

Look at the long term, though, and you can see the shift. In 1969,
about 84 percent of those surveyed approved of laws against marijuana,
and it's been mostly on the decline ever since.

"If this current trend on legalizing marijuana continues," Gallup
concludes, "pressure may build to bring the nation's laws into
compliance with the people's wishes."

That's already started to happen. Sixteen states, plus the District of
Columbia, have passed laws allowing medical marijuana. A 2010 survey -
also from Gallup - recorded 70 percent support for marijuana
prescriptions.

It's not clear if that will translate into full legalization. Last
year, California defeated a ballot measure that would let local
jurisdictions decide for themselves if pot should be forbidden.
Proposition 19 died with 54 percent of voters saying no.

The average person really doesn't care if cancer patients smoke
marijuana, it seems, but they dislike the idea of their bus driver or
doctor being able to do so.

Activists say they're going to try again next year.

Younger generations do tend to support marijuana legalization more -
about 62 percent of those ages 18 to 29 are pro-pot, Gallup says - but
they don't vote as much as older people do.

And we haven't really touched the biggest roadblock: the federal
government.

Under federal law, pot possession and distribution are illegal - even
in states that have opened the door to medical marijuana. Earlier this
month, in fact, federal prosecutors in California warned dispensaries
there to shut down or risk criminal charges.

They did that because, they say, the medical-marijuana movement became
corrupted.

"The intention regarding medical marijuana under California state law
was to allow marijuana to be supplied to seriously ill people on a
nonprofit basis," U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag told The Associated
Press. "What we are finding, however, is that California's laws have
been hijacked by people who are in this to get rich and don't care at
all about sick people."

Any state that does fully legalize marijuana would probably find
itself battling the federal government.

But who knows? Give it another 20 years, and we all might be
surprised.