Major National Poll Finds Support for Legalization Down 10% Since 2013
Public Religion Research Institute Poll, funded by the Ford Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation, finds only 44% of Americans now support legalization, down from 51% in 2013. Opposition at 50%.
WASHINGTON- Coming off of a Suffolk University/USA Today poll finding only 46% of Coloradans support legalization now, a new report released just now finds that in a survey of over 4,500 adults, only 44% support marijuana legalization. 50% of Americans oppose it, including 24% who strongly oppose such a policy.
“Legalization is not a done deal – far from it,” remarked Kevin A. Sabet, President of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM). “People are waking up and realizing that legalization in practice does not represent the magic policy they were promised.”
Polls in Alaska and elsewhere also find diminished support. Reports from Colorado are finding that revenue projections were grossly overestimated, and the public is experiencing increased health and safety consequences driven by the marijuana industry.
The margin of error for the survey is +/- 1.8 percentage points at the 95% level of confidence. The survey was designed and conducted by Public Religion Research Institute and funded by the Ford Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Results of the survey were based on bilingual (Spanish and English) RDD telephone interviews
conducted between July 21, 2014 and August 15, 2014 by professional interviewers under the direction of SSRS, a full-service survey research firm. Interviews were conducted among a random sample of 4,507 adults 18 years of age or older living in the United States (2,253 respondents were interviewed on a cell phone).
Data collection is based on stratified, single-stage, random-digit-dialing (RDD) sample of landline telephone households and randomly generated cell phone numbers. The sample is designed to represent the total U.S. adult population covering respondents from all 50 states, including Hawaii and Alaska. The landline and cell phone samples are provided by Marketing Systems.
Project SAM, has four main goals:
* To inform public policy with the science of today’s potent marijuana.
* To prevent the establishment of “Big Marijuana” – and a 21st-Century tobacco industry that would market marijuana to children.
* To promote research of marijuana’s medical properties and produce, non-smoked, non-psychoactive pharmacy-attainable medications.
* To have an adult conversation about reducing the unintended consequences of current marijuana policies, such as lifelong stigma due to arrest.
About Project SAM
Project SAM is a nonpartisan alliance of lawmakers, scientists and other concerned citizens who want to move beyond simplistic discussions of “incarceration versus legalization” when discussing marijuana use, and instead focus on a “health-first” policy that neither demonizes nor legalizes the drug. SAM supports tackling mental health treatment and stopping the next “Big Tobacco” in the form of “Big Marijuana.” SAM is supported by a world renowned science advisory board and has affiliates in 27 states. Visit SAM’s website http://learnaboutsam.org/
