Reply #79: my stats are from gallup polls, ABC

[RainDog]

but first: you are trying to change the subject by asking about someone getting arrested for possession of mj. first of all, in at least 8 states, and really more, if someone was arrested for smoking pot, they would have to pay a fine of a few hundred dollars. that's it.

racism is still endemic in the US, so some people get held to a different standard, but, honestly, people who get arrested for having a joint are not a top priority for law enforcement - esp. if they're employed, have a family, are not under age... this is the reality.

people who relax at home with the wife, have some friends over to barbeque, smoke a joint, watch a movie - that's really what you're looking at in most mj users, not the fear scenario you present.

yes, if an employee drank and drove and was arrested - that would also be a problem (and drinkers who drive are far more dangerous than mj imbibers on the road, btw.) this has been covered before here on du by others so you can go find this if you want to question this fact.

I think your reaction to this issue is really a bit over-the-top.

8 in 10 support medical mj as of Jan. 2010

http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUnit/Politics/medical-marijuana-abc-news-poll-analysis/story?id=9586503

Eight in 10 Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use and nearly half favor decriminalizing the drug more generally, both far higher than a decade ago.

demographic breakdowns for support for mj legalization:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/123728/U.S.-Support-Legalizing-Marijuana-Reaches-New-High.aspx#

there's more than one breakdown, democrats, republicans, independents, liberals.

wiki has links to the New York Times and CBS and the Pew National Poll that breaks down stats on liberals (including the comparison to the business-class republican, so I'll link to it and you can follow the links to those three.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism_in_the_United_States#Demographics_of_American_liberals

here's a quote to note:

According to recent surveys by the New York Times and CBS News, between 18% and 27% of American adults identify as liberal, versus moderate or conservative.<29> In the 2008 presidential election, exit polls showed that 22% of the electorate self-identified as "liberal."<30> According to a 2004 study by the Pew Research Center, liberals were the most educated ideological demographic and were tied with the conservative sub-group, the "Enterprisers", for the most affluent group. Of those who identified as liberal, 49% were college graduates and 41% had household incomes exceeding $75,000, compared to 27% and 28% as the national average, respectively.<31>

Liberalism also remains the dominant political ideology in academia, with 72% of full-time faculty identifying as liberal in a 2004 study.<32> The social sciences and humanities were most liberal, whereas business and engineering departments were the least liberal, though even in the business departments, liberals outnumbered conservatives 49% to 39%. Generally, the more educated a person is the more likely he or she is to hold liberal beliefs.<33>

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I'd be interested in seeing a poll about consumer attitudes toward businesses that intrude upon their employee's private life. I know from hanging around liberals, however, that corporations don't attract business by upholding laws that are based upon racism, that sort of thing.

Richard Florida has written two books about the ways that the "creative class" - which comes down to liberals, for the most part (you can read his work for a full explication) creates communities that attract money, young people with job skills and things to contribute to a community - people that are tolerant of others and who value personal liberty.

Those are the places in this nation that are innovating and creating the future economy. Knowing the demographics of those that Florida talks about, combined with their support of legalization - that's where I say that corporate "brands" that don't identify with intrusive drug policies would be viewed more favorably by the most affluent.

And I also said, above, that corporations reinforce bad policy by their actions - one simple thing would be to use saliva tests rather than urine tests.

this doesn't change b/c casual users do not want to confront employees on this issue and, yes, corporations decide their own policies. instead, someone would choose to work for another place that doesn't have such a stick up its rear end, when they could.