New MA poll shows rec marijuana winning

A new poll in Massachusetts shows 53% of state voters support a ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana, with 40% opposed and 7% undecided.

The poll is the second in less than three weeks to show Massachusetts voters supporting the recreational marijuana legalization ballot measure, which they will decide on Nov. 8. That’s a dramatic shift from previous polls just a few months ago that showed voters split over the measure or rejecting it.

The measure received majority support from every demographic group except voters who were older than 55 and described themselves as “conservatives,” according to WBZ, the CBS news affiliate in Boston. WBS conducted the poll of 700 people with the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

But the support came with some caveats. The WBZ poll offered respondents different legalization scenarios and asked if any concerned them.

Forty-one percent said they’d be bothered if a marijuana store opened in their neighborhood, and slightly more than half don’t want to see cannabis commercials on television. Sixty-one percent were opposed to public cannabis consumption.