weedporndaily:

t’s almost a certainty that marijuana legalization will be on the ballot in Colorado in 2012,according to The Associated Press.

LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — Colorado’s decision on becoming the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use appears certain for 2012 ballots.

Activists backing a petition to put the question on ballots say they’ve far cleared the 86,000 signature threshold to make ballots, and could have petitions to state officials for approval by the end of the year.

After a failure on the 2006 ballot, legalization will have an uphill battle next year. But the political landscape in the state and in the country is much different now than it was 5 years ago. The national economy is in ruins, and legalization will also be on the ballot in California and maybe states like Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts and Missouri as well.

Will the shattered economy get enough people to open their mind and actually research cannabis and what legalization would mean? If so, then it will likely pass. But open minds are hard to come by, and there are many out there who will vote against legalization no matter what.

Luckily more and more younger voters are entering the fray, voters less likely to have been raised on the extreme propaganda of prohibition. In any case, they are less likely to buy into it.

- Joe Klare

weedporndaily:

Cannabis use continues to rise among youth despite the continued policy of arresting nearly a million people a every year for marijuana violations.

Marijuana use by 8th, 10th and 12th grade students increased again in 2011, with more American teenagers now using marijuana for the fourth year in a row, according to numbers released today by tyne National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the University of Michigan as part of the annual Monitoring the Future survey.

In 2011, a slightly larger percentage of high school seniors used marijuana in the last 30 days, while slightly less had used alcohol.

“This report, once again, clearly demonstrates that our nation’s policymakers have their heads buried in the sand when it comes to addressing teen marijuana use,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). “Political leaders have for decades refused to regulate marijuana in order to keep it out of the hands of drug deals who aren’t required to check customer ID and have no qualms about selling marijuana to young people.

“The continued decline in teen tobacco and alcohol use is proof that sensible regulations, coupled with honest, and science-based public education can be effective in keeping substances away from young people,” Kampia said. “It’s time we acknowledge our current marijuana laws have utterly failed to accomplish one of their primary objectives — to keep marijuana away from young people — and do the right thing by regulating marijuana, bringing its sale under the rule of law, and working to reduce the easy access of marijuana that our irrational system gives teenagers.”

One notable finding in the annual Monitoring the Future report is the inclusion of synthetic smokables in the survey for the first time. While past-year marijuana use rates held steady at 36.4 percent among 12th graders, 11.4 percent of 12 graders reported past-year use of synthetics such as Spice.

​”The decline in cigarette smoking is great news — not just because it’s the most deadly drug but also because it reveals that legal regulation and honest education are more effective than prohibition and criminalization,” said Jag Davies, publications manager of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). “It’s absurd, though, that the survey doesn’t also include the fiscal, health and human costs of arresting more than 1.6 million Americans each year on drug charges, including more than 750,000 for marijuana possession alone.