Only 14.6% of Chileans support marijuana legalization, down from 19% five months ago, according to a newly released Ipsos poll. Some 56% of Chileans reject legalizing marijuana for any reason, the poll found.
Chile is one of the most socially conservative countries in Latin America. Abortion is illegal there, and divorce became legal only five years ago. Homosexuality became legal a decade ago, but the country does not have an anti-discrimination law that includes sexual orientation.
Marijuana has become something of an issue in the country's presidential elections. Former Socialist Party leader Marco Enriquez-Ominami, who is running as an independent has said that he "is a supporter of looking into the matter of legalizing marijuana."
But Eduardo Frei, candidate of the ruling left-leaning Concordance of Parties for Democracy (CPD) responded in a recent debate that he opposes pot legalization. "All drugs are addictive and they lead to harder drugs," he said.
The first round of the Chilean presidential election is set for December 11.
More research needed on this
1. Frei doesn't seem to know anything about Freiheit. What does the word "left-leaning" mean in the above context?
2. Pinochet probably killed off most of those who could have had a more positive educational influence over succeeding decades.
Decriminalization was not one of the options.
This was a poorly done poll. The only middle-ground option was for medical use. So it is not surprising that the percent of people who voted for legalizing marijuana for medical use went up.
The poll question was "Do you support or oppose legalizing marijuana?"
There were only 3 options for answers:
Support or Oppose or "Only for medical purposes"
Other polls are better done, separate the issues, and give more options. Such as whether people prefer fines to jailing people for possession of small amounts of cannabis. Medical use is an entirely separate issue. This was a ridiculous poll.
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