Poll: Support for legalizing marijuana reaches record high

DENVER - A new poll released Monday shows support for legalizing marijuana has reached a record high in the United States, although support for it does not have a majority.

According to the results of a Gallup Poll, 44 percent of Americans say they support the outright legalization of cannabis, while 54 percent were in favor of keeping it illegal.

The poll results were released on the same day the U.S. Justice Department announced it will not prosecute anyone following state laws regarding medical marijuana use and distribution.

"As more and more Americans come to realize that marijuana is far less harmful than alcohol, more are arriving at the conclusion that it ought to be made legal for responsible adult use," Mason Tvert, a marijuana proponent, stated in a news release. "After all, it makes very little sense for adults to be punished simply for making the rational, safer choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol for recreation and relaxation."

Tvert, who co-authored the book Marijuana Is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink? says cannabis is far less toxic, far less addictive and far less problematic than alcohol.

His view on marijuana led Tvert to start the group SAFER (Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation), a nonprofit organization which aims to show the "relative safety of marijuana compared to alcohol."

SAFER successfully got Denver voters to pass a marijuana-alcohol equalization initiative in 2006 which made it legal for Denverites over 21 to possess less than one ounce of marijuana for personal usage. The law, however, left plenty of gray areas when it came to obtaining cannabis. Colorado's 2000 law regarding medical marijuana also left numerous regulatory gray areas, a point the state's attorney general, John Suthers, issued a statement about on Monday, urging more regulation on medical marijuana dispensaries.

Call for marijuana rules divides pot industry

Colorado's medical marijuana industry has had a divided response to the statement from the state's attorney general that the state needs to refine laws about marijuana.

Suthers said in a statement Monday that the state legislature needs to regulate the nascent marijuana industry. The statement comes after federal authorities say they won't pursue legal action against medical marijuana sellers in states where the product is legal.

Suthers says that Colorado needs to do a better job regulating marijuana sellers in the absence of federal guidelines. The marijuana industry is divided. Some applaud the move and say lawmakers need to establish standard rules across the state for marijuana. But others say the state shouldn't step in.