A newly released poll has found that a strong majority of Americans support the legalization of cannabis for recreational or medical use. These results come from the latest edition of the Harvard-Harris online survey, which asked over 2,000 registered voters their opinions on cannabis legalization, among other things.
Forty-nine percent of the respondents said they supported full cannabis legalization, and a further 37 percent said they supported medical legalization only. Only 14 percent of respondents said they were opposed to all cannabis legalization efforts. Sixty-nine percent of the respondents said it would not bother them if cannabis were legalized in their state.
Sixty percent of the voters said that they believed that crime was increasing throughout the country, and the majority of the respondents said that they believed that drugs were the primary factor driving this wave of crime. Eighty-eight percent of the voters said they view drug abuse as a serious problem or crisis. Yet despite these concerns, 57% of respondents said they believed that legalizing cannabis would make society better.
“Voters point to drugs as the major source of crime and support tough sentences for drug dealers but view marijuana in a wholly different light,” said Mark Penn, Harvard-Harris co-director. “Most think legalization of marijuana would probably be helpful in reducing crime and almost half support legalization.”
The Harvard-Harris poll is a collaboration between the Harvard Center for American Political Studies and The Harris Poll. The current survey was conducted online from July 19th to 24th. Out of the 2,051 respondents, 37 percent were Democrats, 31 percent were Republicans, and 31 percent were independent or other.
