Iowa is probably not the first place that you think of when you think of states that are next up to reform its marijuana laws. However, there has been a lot of ground work being done there for quite some time, and considering how popular cannabis reform is these days, reform is certainly possible in Iowa. A poll was released this week which found that 78% of Iowans support medical marijuana reform. Per the Des Moines Register:
More than three-quarters of Iowans now favor allowing people to use marijuana as medicine, but most remain opposed to legalizing it for recreation, a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows.
Iowans have steadily become more comfortable with the use of medical marijuana, which now is supported by 78 percent of the state’s adults, according to the Iowa Poll. That is up from 58 percent in 2013.
But most Iowans continue to oppose allowing people to smoke or eat marijuana for recreational purposes. Just 34 percent of adults favor that idea, up 5 percentage points from 2013, the poll shows.
As I always ask when I see a poll like this, ‘what kind of medical marijuana reform would these poll participants support?’ Getting people to agree that marijuana has medical value is one thing, but getting them to agree on the particulars of a state medical marijuana program is much different. But this is still very encouraging to see in Iowa, especially since the results of the poll were so overwhelming. It would have been nice to see higher support for recreational cannabis legalization, but the fact that the ‘yes’ side grew by 5% since 2013 is significant.
