A poll was recently released which found that 55% of polled Maine voters support marijuana legalization. That’s a similar result to other polls I have seen out of Maine. That’s good right? Especially considering that marijuana legalization is going to be on the ballot in Maine in November. Not according to marijuana opponents. When the recent poll results were released by Critical Insights, Scott Gagnon of Project Sam had the following to say, per Bangor Daily News:
Scott Gagnon of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which leads the opposition to legalization, said he is skeptical of any poll funded by proponents of the initiative. Gagnon is also a blogger for the Bangor Daily News.
“The fact that the campaign has received wall-to-wall media coverage and is only at 55 percent in a poll they commissioned means their campaign still has an uphill battle,” wrote Gagnon in response to questions from the Bangor Daily News. “I believe you will see just how soft that support is once our coalition ramps up and gets out to share the true risks and costs of legalization with Mainers all around the state.”
As you can see, Project SAM is already gearing up to spread some serious reefer madness around Maine. They will no doubt come with their ‘perceived risk strategy’ in which they will try very hard to convince the public that while the sky won’t fall in the near future, just as it hasn’t in states that have already legalized, the sky will most certainly fall in the future if we don’t scare the hell out of people (especially youth) into thinking that marijuana consumption is the beginning of the end for anyone who dares consume cannabis. You will hear terms like ‘rock THC’ and ‘commercialized THC’ thrown around a lot. Fight rhetoric with the facts. If you live in Maine, arm yourself with science and statistics, and share them with every voter that you see.
