Polls Point to Washington State's I-502 Passage, Despite Medical Users' Reservations

On the eve of the vote for Washington state's Initiative 502 vote — which would legalize cannabis use by adults — NORML's blog reports that a recent pool pegs support at 56 percent.

Those that do not support the I-502 comes in at 37 percent, with another 7 percent undecided. All indicators, then, point to its passage.

However, the initiative is not without its problems and detractors. It's still controversial among proponents of medical use, citing I-502's provisions for driving under the influence and research that points to THC levels over that threshold being in the body up to a month after ingestion. Medical advocates are also concerned that marijuana used as medication will be taxed at the same 25 percent rate as those using it for recreation.

Others are still clinging to the drug war dogma that pot is a "gateway drug."

"I had a judge speak at one of my D.A.R.E. graduations and he talked about the hundreds of cases that go through his court and out of all those cases maybe two people didn't start by smoking marijuana," Clarkston Police D.A.R.E. Officer John Morbeck told KLEW.

However, the anti-drug forces' arguments are sounding more and more like alarmist 1920's-era anti-alcohol temperance rhetoric to an increasingly skeptical public.