Obama May Use Pot Issue to Lure Young Voters

State initiatives to legalize marijuana could be President Barack Obama’s secret weapon to turn out young voters who otherwise may not bother to go to the polls in November.

The issue could be on the ballot in at least three swing states, the Atlantic reports, and it could be enough to turn the election to the president, the Atlantic reports.

But the tactic has its drawbacks, the magazine points out. “Stoners aren't the group anyone would most count on to bother filling out a ballot.”

The Atlantic likens the idea to 2004 when several states had votes to ban gay marriage. Conservatives turned out in droves and George W. Bush got re-elected.

Now it says the issue is already on the ballot in Colorado, where Obama currently holds a slim 2 percent lead over Republican Mitt Romney; and signatures are being collected in Ohio — where his lead is even smaller — and Michigan, where polls show Romney is rapidly eating into Obama’s lead.

Similar initiatives are also on the ballot in heavily-Democratic Massachusetts and Washington State and in solid-red Nebraska. “This could be the year for pro-marijuana turnout,” reports the Atlantic.

“After all, 2011 was the first year more young people smoked pot than cigarettes.”