Richard Wagoner wrote in the Seattle Times 5 July 2011, Elway poll: Washington voters favor legalizing pot:

A new Elway poll released today found that most Washington voters supported or were inclined to support legalizing marijuana. However, the level of majority support was within the the poll’s margin of error.

Thirty percent of those polled said they “definitely supported” legalizing marijuana, while 24 percent said they were “inclined to support, but needed to know more.”

Thirty-two percent of the voters were “definitely opposed” to legal pot, and 11 percent were “inclined to oppose, but could be convinced” otherwise, the poll found.

Was this enough? Not yet, as Ninja Smoker wrote 9 July 2011, Washington State Legalization Initiative Does Not Qualify For Ballot:

It is with heavy hearts but undiminished resolve that we report that we did not reach our signature gathering goal for I-1149. Simply put, we did not have enough boots on the ground to make it happen.

The political reality is that putting an initiative on the ballot with an all-volunteer effort is practically unheard of, let alone in an off-off-year election when political interest is at its lowest. Asking volunteers to collect signatures in Washington’s coldest, rainiest spring on record is a tall order, no matter how noble the cause.

We cannot escape the need for at least some level of paid signature gathering. As in 2010, we could very easily have garnered the necessary support from the public—if only we’d had the money.

Fundraising needs to be our top priority in the coming months.

Convince some of those 24 percent “inclined to support, but needed to know more” and George Washington can be growing hemp again.

As Ninja Smoker concluded:

…the work isn’t done until Prohibition is repealed.

Too bad they’re not really going for ending drug prohibition, like Portugal successfully did, but at least the slackers in Washington are trying to end one aspect of prohibition.

-jsq

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