Greater than two-thirds of Individuals are in favor of legalizing small quantities of hashish for private use, in keeping with the outcomes of a ballot launched on Monday. The brand new Monmouth College ballot additionally confirmed broad help for President Joseph Biden’s latest government order to pardon federal convictions for low-level marijuana possession and located that almost all Individuals consider that hashish is safer than alcohol.
“Polling from a wide range of sources exhibits that help for marijuana legalization has been growing constantly over the previous twenty years,” said Patrick Murray, director of the unbiased Monmouth College Polling Institute.
The ballot discovered that general, 68% of respondents help legalizing small quantities of marijuana for private use. Hashish legalization was supported by 76% of Democrats, 73% of unbiased voters and 52% of Republicans. Younger folks confirmed the strongest help for legalizing marijuana, with 87% of these beneath 35 years previous, whereas simply over a majority (53%) of these aged 55 and older help legalization.
Two-Thirds Help Biden’s Pardons
The Monmouth ballot additionally confirmed robust help for Biden’s announcement on October 6 that he would pardon federal convictions for easy marijuana possession, with 69% of all respondents saying that they backed the president’s transfer.
“Biden’s motion is in step with how the overwhelming majority of Individuals really feel about this situation,” Murray stated.
Nevertheless, most have been uncertain concerning the scope of the pardons. An analysis by The New York Times decided that the pardons will have an effect on about 6,500 individuals who have been convicted of marijuana possession beneath federal regulation and 1000’s extra within the District of Columbia. 1 / 4 (25%) thought the variety of convictions pardoned was lower than 1,000, whereas a fifth (21%) thought the whole was greater than 10,000. One-fourth (26%) stated the quantity was within the precise vary of 1,000 to 10,000 convictions, whereas 29% declined to estimate.
Greater than half of Individuals (54%) stated that legalizing marijuana can have no affect on the variety of crimes associated to different medication. 1 / 4 (25%) stated they believed legalizing marijuana would enhance the variety of different drug crimes, whereas 16% stated that different drug crimes would lower on account of hashish legalization.
Majority Believes Alcohol Is Extra Harmful Than Weed
Most respondents (54%) stated that they believed alcohol is extra harmful than weed, whereas solely 7% stated marijuana is extra harmful and 38% stated they thought the 2 substances are equally harmful. A plurality of respondents (45%) additionally thought pot is safer than tobacco. Solely 13% stated marijuana was extra harmful than tobacco and 38% stated they have been equally harmful.
Greater than half (54%) of American adults stated that that they had tried marijuana, together with 54% of Democrats, 51% of Republicans and 56% of independents. Those that had tried marijuana have been extra supportive of legalization, with 87% of these with private expertise with the plant favoring legalization and fewer than half (47%) of those that have by no means tried pot in favor of legalizing small quantities of hashish.
Brian Vicente, founding companion of the hashish and psychedelics regulation agency Vicente Sederberg LLP, believes that the robust help for marijuana legalization revealed by the brand new ballot is more likely to be mirrored in subsequent month’s midterm elections, when five states will be voting to legalize adult-use cannabis.
“This ballot is a milestone in hashish coverage, with a surprising 68% of Individuals now supporting legalization. Importantly, we now have a majority of each main political events and a broad swath of Individuals no matter age now supporting reform,” Vicente wrote in an electronic mail to Excessive Occasions.
“This analysis, mixed with the overwhelmingly optimistic response to President Biden’s latest actions to pardon marijuana convictions is creating essentially the most energized local weather round hashish reform that our nation has seen in a decade,” he added. “This local weather is more likely to contribute to a different 4 or 5 states legalizing hashish on November eighth. All these elements will present a lift to hashish reformers in DC, which makes important federal reform an actual risk this yr.”
The Monmouth College Ballot was performed by phone from October 13 to 17, 2022 with 808 adults in america. The outcomes have a margin of error of +/- 5.2 proportion factors for the total pattern.
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