Judges’ views on marijuana legalization look like the public’s—with one significant exception

A sample of the comments (all left anonymously):

  • “I’ve never sentenced a cocaine or heroin addict that didn’t start with marijuana.”
  • “90 percent of felons I ever sentenced started their journey to addiction with marijuana.”
  • “As a drug court judge, almost every one of my participants, when asked, stated marijuana was their gateway drug.”
  • “I have been assigned to drug cases for 11 years and was a police officer for 32 years. Every conversation I had with people on hard drugs, they always started with marijuana. Why do we want to do this with our citizens?”