The poll found supermajority support for medical marijuana in New York across the board. Every age range, partisan group, income bracket, ethnicity, and region overwhelmingly thinks sick people should be allowed to use medical marijuana if their physician believes it would help them. There is effectively no significant group in the state that opposes it.

It is a rare issue with complete bipartisan support. The poll found 81 percent of Democrats and 81 percent of Republicans think medical marijuana should be legal.

Currently, there are proposed bills pending in both the Assembly (A06357) and Senate (S04406) to adopt medical marijuana. If the legislature actually listens to the will of the electorate they would approve the bills.

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Among partisan groups support for marijuana legalization was actually highest among Independents with 72 percent in support. By comparison 61 percent of Democrats support marijuana legalization and only 41 percent of Republicans. This would seem to indicate that endorsing marijuana reform would be a smart political move for candidates by helping them appeal to the Independent voters since this group often decides elections.

This is now the second poll this year to show that a majority of voters in Arizona are ready to back significant changes to marijuana laws.

In January Public Policy Polling did a survey of Arizona for the National Voice for the Cannabis Industry. While the wording of its poll was slightly different it found that 59 percent would support a ballot initiative to have “marijuana be regulated in a manner similar to alcohol and sold to adults 21 years of age or older.”

Assuming more polling confirms these results Arizona could potentially end up as a target for a marijuana ballot initiative in one of the upcoming elections.

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District of Columbia

According to a new PPP poll for the Marijuana Policy Project, the people of Washington D.C. overwhelming support marijuana legalization.

If a legalization initiative, like the ones on the ballot last year in Colorado and Washington State, was to be placed on the ballot in the District it would be supported by 63 percent of D.C. voters. The poll found only 30 percent of District residents would oppose it.

The poll found even greater support for taking the smaller step of decriminalizing marijuana in the city. An incredible 75 percent of District voters would support dropping the penalty for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana to just a civil violation resulting in a $100 ticket. Only 21 percent of voters would oppose this change. Currently, marijuana possession is punishable with up to six months in jail.

The District is both younger and significantly more liberal than the rest of the country. Marijuana reform polls very well and D.C. law allows for ballot initiatives. These four factors should make it the top target for a marijuana reform initiative next year but there is one huge possible legal issue – Congress.

Congress technically still has the ability to override any laws in the nation’s capital and occasionally does. For example in 1998 District residents approved a medical marijuana initiative but Congress prevented the District from implementing that law for two decades.

This created a real dilemma for the marijuana reform movement. Even though the voters of D.C. are ready to fully legalize marijuana, it may politically make more sense to only push for decriminalization in the near future. While Congress might feel compelled to act against legalization in their own backyard, they are less likely to interfere with decriminalization.

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According to the poll Americans overwhelmingly don’t want the federal government to interfere in states that allow marijuana use. It found 60 percent don’t want the feds to enforce federal marijuana laws in those states, while just 35 percent think the federal government should interfere.

Interestingly, there is basically no partisan divide on whether or not marijuana law should be left up to the states, even though there is a large partisan divide on whether or not it should be legal. Basically equally large majorities of Republicans (57%), Democrats (59%) and Independents (64%) want the federal government to stay out of state marijuana law.

At least part of the reason some many people don’t want to see federal agents enforcing federal law against the will of local voters is that almost everyone thinks the war on marijuana is no longer worth the cost. The poll found 72 percent believe government enforcement of marijuana laws cost more than they are worth.

This part of the poll is especially important now because the Obama administration is still engaged in internal discussions about how to deal with the new legalization laws approved by voters in Colorado and Washington State. The fact that multiple polls confirm regular American overwhelmingly want the administration to take a hands-off approach must weigh into their deliberations.

There is very clear trend in opinions about marijuana. Support has been growing for twenty years, with the trend escalating in the past few years. Since just 2010 support has increased by 11 points.

All indications are that support will continue to grow in the coming years since there is a significant generational divide. Young people overwhelmingly believe marijuana should be legal, while senior citizens are the only age group where a majority thinks it should still be illegal

One of the most important changes is how people think of marijuana use on a moral level. Back in 2006, 50 percent of Americans thought smoking marijuana was morally wrong, while only 45 percent saw it as morally acceptable or simply not a moral issue. That has completely flipped. Now only 32 percent think marijuana is morally wrong, while 62 percent think it is acceptable or not an issue of morality.

Voters have already legalized marijuana in Colorado and Washington State. Based on the polling trends, it is only a matter of time before that change is adopted more widely.

The voters of Minnesota overwhelmingly want to see medical marijuana approved in their state. According to a new survey by Public Policy Polling for the Marijuana Policy Project, voters in the state back medical marijuana by greater than a two-to-one margin.

Minnesota
PPP (3/1-2)
Do you support or oppose changing the law in Minnesota to allow people with serious and terminal illnesses to use medical marijuana if their doctors recommend it?
Support  ………………. 65%
Oppose ………………. 27%
Not sure ………………. 8%

As with all polling about marijuana-related issues, there is a big generational divide. An incredible 87 percent of voters under the age of 35 support medical marijuana, while only 47 percent of senior citizens support the change.

Unfortunately, despite the overwhelming support for medical marijuana in the state, it seems unlikely that any new law will be approved this year. According the Star Tribune it is unlikely that the legislature will take up this issue this session.

Photo by marijuana2007b under Creative Commons license.

The people of Florida overwhelmingly back allowing medical marijuana in the state. A new poll conducted for People United for Medical Marijuana and obtained by the Miami Herald found 70 percent of Florida voters would back an amendment to legalize medical marijuana and only 24 percent would oppose it. From the Miami Herald:

As many as seven in 10 Florida voters support a state constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana — more than enough to ensure passage and possibly affect the governor’s race — according to a new poll from a group trying to put the measure on the 2104 ballot.

Medical pot’s sky-high approval cuts across party and demographic lines, with Republican support the lowest at a still-strong 56 percent, the poll conducted for People United for Medical Marijuana, or PUFMM, shows.

The outsized support of Democrats and independents brings overall backing of the amendment to 70 percent; with only 24 percent opposed, according to the poll obtained by The Miami Herald.

Florida has unusual laws when it comes to the initiative process. It does not allow citizens to put initiatives on the ballot but it does allow citizens to put constitutional amendments on the ballot. For an amendment to be adopted though it needs to be approved by 3/5th of the voters in that election.

The fact that medical marijuana currently has such overwhelming support in Florida means there is a good chance an amendment could clear this high threshold if it did get put on the ballot. Getting on the ballot in Florida is no easy task. It requires just over 675,000 valid signatures.

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medical marijuana

The people of New Hampshire want medical marijuana legalized by their state government. According to the latest WMUR Granite State Poll, an incredible 79 percent of adults in New Hampshire support medical marijuana while only 14 percent oppose the idea.

The poll found medical marijuana has majority support among all age brackets, regions, partisan groups, and ideological leanings. Even conservatives and senior citizens, the two groups that tend to be the most opposed to marijuana reform, overwhelmingly back the idea.

Hopefully the fact that the people New Hampshire so strongly support medical marijuana will spur the state legislature to move quickly on the issue this year. The legislature passed a medical marijuana bill last year but it was vetoed by then-Gov. John Lynch (D). Now that Lynch has been replaced by the pro-medical marijuana Gov. Margaret Hassan (D), the chances of a medical marijuana law being adopted soon look bright.

The poll also asked about legalizing marijuana for recreational use and found a plurality support for the change. 48 percent of the state supports fully legalizing cannabis, while 45 percent oppose legalization. Not surprisingly there was a big age divide on the issue with a majority of all adults under the age of 65 in support of legalization, but a majority of senior citizens opposed. The natural demographic turnover ensures support for legalization will grow in the coming years.

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Homegrown.

While the Obama administration is deliberating how to handle the newly approved marijuana legalization laws in Colorado and Washington State, one thing they will likely pay attention to is popular opinion. Regular Americans overwhelmingly see marijuana legalization as a states’ rights issue and do not want the federal government to interfere with the will of the electorate in either state.

A new Reason-Rupe Public Opinion poll found a majority of Americans do not want federal resources used to inhibit any aspects of the new legal marijuana system in these two states. The poll found 72 percent don’t want the federal government to arrest people for using marijuana in these states, while only 24 percent want federal law enforcement deployment.

Similarly, the poll found 68 percent don’t want the feds arresting people for growing marijuana and 64 percent don’t even want the feds to arrest people for selling marijuana. As long as individual are following state law they should be left alone.

Interestingly, the survey found that 47 percent support legalizing marijuana for recreational issue while 49 percent oppose it. While the country is still divided on the merits of legalization, even many of the people who don’t think legalization is a good idea would still oppose having the federal government interfere. As far as most Americans are concerned, the voters in both states have spoken and the federal government should respect that.

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West Virginia is the 14th most conservative state in the country. It has the third highest percentage of senior citizens in the country and it is the state where Mitt Romney won his fifth largest share of the vote. Despite all that there is still majority support for medical marijuana, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey done for the Marijuana Policy Project.

West Virginia
PPP (1/7-9)
Do you support or oppose changing the law in West Virginia to allow seriously and terminally ill patients to use medical marijuana if their doctors recommend it?
Support ………………. 53%
Oppose ………………. 40%
Not sure ……………… 6%

This poll highlights how mainstream and uncontroversial medical marijuana is with regular Americans. The public overwhelmingly supports this policy even in very conservative states like West Virginia.

Given its broad support is is absurd that the federal government continues to categorize marijuana as a Schedule I substance. This makes medical marijuana still technically illegal under federal law even in the states where it has been approved.

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