With Californians likely to vote in November on whether to legalize marijuana, some key swing voters – Democratic and independent women – are expressing a surprising reason why they would support the initiative, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Suburban “soccer moms” who are likely voters have told pollsters that the measure, which would give local governments the authority to tax and regulate the sale of cannabis to adults 21 or older, would provide a safer way for their adult children to buy pot.
“One of the scary things to some people is that their kids may be buying it from someone dangerous,” said Ruth Bernstein of EMC Research, an Oakland firm that has been doing polling and focus groups on behalf of the measure’s proponents. The battleground to legalize marijuana may be in the suburbs. “The legalizers have yet to explain what the social betterment is by legalizing another mind-altering substance,” said John Lovell, a lobbyist for law enforcement agencies opposed to legalization. “They’re smoking something if they think soccer moms are going to go their way.”