GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — From slick video ads online to scrawled chalk messages on college campus sidewalks, intense get-out-the-vote drives are mobilizing in Oregon and Alaska to legalize retail sales of marijuana to anyone old enough to drink.
But backers of the legal-pot ballot measures in both states have a challenge that their predecessors in Colorado and Washington state didn’t face two years ago — increasing turnout of young voters in a midterm election.
Young voters, who as a generation are more likely to support recreational marijuana, usually turn out during presidential years like 2012, but stay home during midterms, when the electorate skews older and more conservative.
If young people 18 to 29 years old vote like they did in 2012, Oregon’s Measure 91, for example, would pass, said Ethan Nadelmann, head of Drug Policy Action, a major contributor in the national campaign to legalize marijuana.
“That’s really what it boils down to,” he said.
Washington, D.C., is voting on whether to make it legal to possess marijuana, but not sell it. See Full Story at HuffingtonPost.com
image credit huffingtonpost.com
