About three-fourths of Florida voters support legalizing marijuana possession for adult use, including strong bipartisan majorities, according to a new poll. The survey released by the University of North Florida on Tuesday didn’t ask about where voters stood on creating a regulated system of cannabis sales, but 76 percent said they either strongly or somewhat support allowing adults to “legally possess small amounts of marijuana for recreational use.” Just 20 percent said they oppose the policy change. This marks a 12 percentage point increase in support since the last time the university polled on the issue in November 2019. “Previous polls we conducted have shown support in the mid-60s for marijuana legalization but Floridians are now highly supportive of recreational marijuana,” Michael Binder, a political science professor who led the survey, said in a press release. The crosstabs of the survey show majority support for legalizing cannabis possession across every demographic, including party, age, sex, race, and education. Levels of support did follow common themes, however. For example, Democrats were more favorable of possession legalization (76 percent) compared to Republicans (64 percent). Among people with no party affiliation, 90 percent back-ended cannabis prohibition. And younger people were generally for supportive of the proposal than older generations, though even a majority of those in the 65+ group still support the policy (63 percent).
Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 02/22/2022 12:51:00