Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
The way that presidential candidates answer the question of whether they smoked marijuana in their youth has evolved over the last generation from then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton's "I didn't inhale" in 1992 to then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's response in 2006: "When I was a kid, I inhaled frequently. That was the point." With Americans now expressing more positive attitudes toward legal marijuana and pot smoking than ever before, potential presidential candidates in 2016 are likely to answer more like Obama and less like Clinton.
The new pot reality also reflects a demographics shift. More candidates now were children of the 60s and 70s, when marijuana started to become more widely used among youth, said Michael Genovese, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. "We understand it's not a big deal anymore and so admitting that you did it doesn't have the negative impact it did 20 years ago, but being cagey about it raises questions," he said.
Pot has already become somewhat of an issue this election cycle. Earlier this week, potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas revealed he lit up as a youth, according to the Daily Mail. "Teenagers are often known for their lack of judgment, and Sen. Cruz was no exception," a spokesman for the Cruz told the British tabloid in a story published Tuesday. "When he was a teenager, he foolishly experimented with marijuana. It was a mistake, and he's never tried it since."
Another possible 2016 GOP contender, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, was less forthcoming. If he said yes, he never smoked pot, Rubio explained, the public wouldn't believe him. And if he said no, he doesn't want youth to think it's O.K. to smoke weed because Rubio did. Meanwhile, the Boston Globe recently published a story about former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's "tumultuous" teenage years at the elite Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. Bush admitted that he drank alcohol and smoked marijuana, which was "pretty common," at the prestigious boarding school.
Admitting to pot use now is more about getting in front of the story, and denying it only opens the candidates up to intense scrutiny of their past, Genovese said. "In today's hypermedia, transparency becomes very important and any little foible and anything that is deemed dishonest becomes exploited," Genovese said.
Three years before Clinton's half-admission, 81 percent of Americans said marijuana should be illegal. In 2014, only 45 percent of Americans said they felt that way, according to the Pew Research Center. A 2013 Gallup poll found even more support for legal weed, with 58 percent of Americans saying it should be legalized and 39 percent saying it should be kept illegal. Roughly 22 states now have laws on medical marijuana legalization.
The change in attitudes signals that politicians don't have to be coy anymore about their past marijuana use. But GOP contenders may have to be more careful because of their core constituencies, said Reed Welch, a political science professor at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas. "The Republican primary is a different beast than the general election, of course, and the voters that vote in primaries are different," Welch said. For instance, evangelicals make up a big chunk of caucus-goers in Iowa, which helped conservatives Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum win the state in 2004 and 2008. South Carolina, a conservative southern state, is the third primary contest of the GOP cycle.
"When you have someone who lies or dances around it, people will find that that is not a desirable characteristic; they're turned off by it," said Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, a marijuana legalization advocacy group in Washington, D.C. "If a candidate said, 'I never had a sip of alcohol and never would,' that would play a role in people's perception of who they are.'"
The yes-or-no answer isn't a big deal to Tom Angell, founder of the marijuana legalization group Marijuana Majority. "I care much less about whether someone used marijuana and was telling the truth about it then whether they will put my friends in jail for using marijuana," he said.
Voters also consistently say that they want a president they can relate to. Pollsters get to the heart of this by asking which candidate voters would rather have a beer with. Not having smoked marijuana may raise red flags about relatability.
"If I found someone who didn't try [marijuana] I'd wonder, 'What's wrong with you? Are you really uptight?'" Genovese said. "I would be suspicious of someone who weren't human."
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: 2016 Presidential Election And Marijuana: How Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio Answer The Weed Question
Author: Howard Koplowitz
Contact: h.koplowitz@ibtimes.com
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: International Business Times - International Business News, Financial News, Market News, Politics, Forex, Commodities
The new pot reality also reflects a demographics shift. More candidates now were children of the 60s and 70s, when marijuana started to become more widely used among youth, said Michael Genovese, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. "We understand it's not a big deal anymore and so admitting that you did it doesn't have the negative impact it did 20 years ago, but being cagey about it raises questions," he said.
Pot has already become somewhat of an issue this election cycle. Earlier this week, potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas revealed he lit up as a youth, according to the Daily Mail. "Teenagers are often known for their lack of judgment, and Sen. Cruz was no exception," a spokesman for the Cruz told the British tabloid in a story published Tuesday. "When he was a teenager, he foolishly experimented with marijuana. It was a mistake, and he's never tried it since."
Another possible 2016 GOP contender, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, was less forthcoming. If he said yes, he never smoked pot, Rubio explained, the public wouldn't believe him. And if he said no, he doesn't want youth to think it's O.K. to smoke weed because Rubio did. Meanwhile, the Boston Globe recently published a story about former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's "tumultuous" teenage years at the elite Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. Bush admitted that he drank alcohol and smoked marijuana, which was "pretty common," at the prestigious boarding school.
Admitting to pot use now is more about getting in front of the story, and denying it only opens the candidates up to intense scrutiny of their past, Genovese said. "In today's hypermedia, transparency becomes very important and any little foible and anything that is deemed dishonest becomes exploited," Genovese said.
Three years before Clinton's half-admission, 81 percent of Americans said marijuana should be illegal. In 2014, only 45 percent of Americans said they felt that way, according to the Pew Research Center. A 2013 Gallup poll found even more support for legal weed, with 58 percent of Americans saying it should be legalized and 39 percent saying it should be kept illegal. Roughly 22 states now have laws on medical marijuana legalization.
The change in attitudes signals that politicians don't have to be coy anymore about their past marijuana use. But GOP contenders may have to be more careful because of their core constituencies, said Reed Welch, a political science professor at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas. "The Republican primary is a different beast than the general election, of course, and the voters that vote in primaries are different," Welch said. For instance, evangelicals make up a big chunk of caucus-goers in Iowa, which helped conservatives Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum win the state in 2004 and 2008. South Carolina, a conservative southern state, is the third primary contest of the GOP cycle.
"When you have someone who lies or dances around it, people will find that that is not a desirable characteristic; they're turned off by it," said Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, a marijuana legalization advocacy group in Washington, D.C. "If a candidate said, 'I never had a sip of alcohol and never would,' that would play a role in people's perception of who they are.'"
The yes-or-no answer isn't a big deal to Tom Angell, founder of the marijuana legalization group Marijuana Majority. "I care much less about whether someone used marijuana and was telling the truth about it then whether they will put my friends in jail for using marijuana," he said.
Voters also consistently say that they want a president they can relate to. Pollsters get to the heart of this by asking which candidate voters would rather have a beer with. Not having smoked marijuana may raise red flags about relatability.
"If I found someone who didn't try [marijuana] I'd wonder, 'What's wrong with you? Are you really uptight?'" Genovese said. "I would be suspicious of someone who weren't human."
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: 2016 Presidential Election And Marijuana: How Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio Answer The Weed Question
Author: Howard Koplowitz
Contact: h.koplowitz@ibtimes.com
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: International Business Times - International Business News, Financial News, Market News, Politics, Forex, Commodities
