Chart of the Week: Support for recreational cannabis in key states

By Marijuana Business Daily

Note: This is the second of two charts examining polling numbers in key states that could legalize medical or recreational marijuana in 2016. Today’s chart focuses on recreational cannabis states – the first chart on medical marijuana can be found here.  

Several states stand a good chance of legalizing adult-use marijuana this November if advocates are successful in getting measures on the ballot, though one could run into substantial resistance, according to the latest polling data.

Support for recreational cannabis legalization is particularly strong in California, where many marijuana backers are confident they’ll be able to pull off a long-overdue win (another rec measure failed in 2010, just two years before Colorado and Washington State legalized).

Voters there support legalization by a solid 60%, according to a Probolsky Research poll released in February.

The odds also are encouraging at this point in Massachusetts and Michigan, where efforts are underway to get legalization initiatives onto the fall ballot. About 53% of voters in each state support rec legalization, according to a UMass Amherst study released in February and an EPIC-MRA poll performed in March.

But legalization advocates are fighting an uphill battle in Arizona, according to a poll released just this month that found only 43% of voters support legalization, while 49% are opposed and 8% are unsure. It should be noted, however, that a group against legalization was behind the poll.

In Nevada, another prominent possibility that could legalize cannabis this fall, there was no polling data available prior to press time. But the state’s Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol on Monday identified both a February study that showed 57% support for the rec initiative and a March poll that pegged support at 60%.

At the very least, the nation’s four rec states will likely have more company in their select club after the election results are tallied on Nov. 8, which means even more growth for the cannabis industry.