Medical Marijuana Being Prescribed by Doctor – Courtesy: Shutterstock – Image by Africa Studio
A recent poll provides insight into how voters feel about marijuana use, both medically and recreationally.
According to the findings of this latest survey, legalizing recreational marijuana on the ballot in 2016 might prove challenging.
More than 840,000 Florida residents currently use medicinal marijuana, and they purchase it from close to 600 shops spread throughout the state.
“So certainly we have seen a lot of the stigma over marijuana use vanish over the last decade or two in terms of polling,” Stephen Neely said.
One of the researchers behind the recent polls from Florida Atlantic University and the University of South Florida is Neely.
Even though medical marijuana is “accepted,” this reveals that not many people trust how this “medicine” is applied or perhaps even shared with those who are not patients.
In response to the question of whether they are “worried that medical marijuana is being abused,” 45 percent of voters said that they strongly or somewhat concur.
Five percent are undecided, and fifty percent disagree.
Also on the ballot was a question about whether or not “medical marijuana should be taxed.”
Once more, it’s fairly even. Forty-four percent strongly or somewhat concur. Eleven percent are undecided, while 45 percent are in disagreement.
If the Supreme Court upholds a proposed recreational marijuana amendment that is being contested by Attorney General Ashley Moody, voters could change the game the next year.
Sixty percent of respondents to the latest poll support “legalizing recreational use,” while 29 percent are against it, and 11 percent aren’t sure.
Neely claims that the legalization of recreational marijuana is not guaranteed to pass since it needs the support of 60 percent of people and faces impending mistrust about how it is used in medicine.
“It’s a crap shoot if it gets on the ballot. According to these numbers, we really don’t know the answer to how that vote might go, Neely said.
Neely added, “And we don’t know what the grassroots movement will look like over the next year. No pun intended.
The state’s largest medicinal marijuana dispensary, Trulieve, has raised and spent close to $40 million just in the last year to try and get the recreational marijuana amendment on the ballot the following year.
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Chris began his writing as a hobby while attending Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. Today he and his wife live in the Orlando area with their three children and dog.
