I was not surprised when a poll was released yesterday by Public Policy Polling which found that an overwhelming majority of poll participants in Michigan support medical marijuana. The poll asked, ‘Do you think marijuana should be legally allowed for medical purposes with the approval of a doctor, or not?’ 70% of participants stated that they supported the question, 25% said that they didn’t support it, and the rest were undecided.
A follow up question was asked, which stated, ‘Do you think marijuana should be legally allowed for recreational use, that stores should be allowed to sell it, and that its sales should be taxed and regulated similarly to alcohol, or not?’ Only 45% of participants supported the question, while 48% said that they did not, leaving 7% undecided. I would have guessed that it would have been the other way around.
There were 7% of participants that were undecided, which with enough education and campaigning, those participants could fall into the ‘yes’ category. And of course, some of the ‘no’ category people could get on the right side of history and support legalization if/when a campaign is in full swing. Polls tend to skew the results in favor of the ‘no’ category because a lot of people don’t want to say they support legalization in public, but deep down they do, and vote ‘yes’ on election day.
Still, I would expect marijuana legalization to be ahead on any poll in Michigan. Michigan is on a lot of people’s radars for the 2016 Election, during which a lot of states are expected to legalize marijuana. People in Michigan have their work cut out for them. Two years is a lot of time to work with, get active!