60% of Floridians back legalizing recreational marijuana, poll finds

Three out of five Florida residents support legalization of recreational marijuana for recreational use.

The 60% support was found in a public opinion survey of state residents conducted last month by researchers at the University of South Florida and Florida Atlantic University.

The poll found 29% opposed legalization and 11% were unsure.

The poll found significant differences based on political affiliation and age, and notable but smaller differences between men and women.

The overall level of support is significant.

Recreational marijuana is legal in 24 states and the District of Columbia.

Efforts are underway to get a referendum on the November 2024 ballot that would legalize recreational marijuana in Florida for people 21 and older. Passage requires support from 60% of those voting. (The USF/FAU survey questioned Florida residents, however, not registered voters.)

The Secretary of State’s Office shows that Smart & Safe Florida, funded by medical-marijuana company Trulieve, has collected more than enough signatures to get the legalization referendum on the ballot.

The referendum must get approved by the Florida Supreme Court, and Attorney General Ashley Moody has asked the court to keep it off the ballot.

Age

The survey found some notable differences based on age.

“I think the age (difference) is probably the most interesting factor here,” said Kaila Witkowski, an assistant professor at FAU, where she studies health policy, especially the epidemic of overdoses and how legalization of different drugs affects people, perceptions, and recovery efforts.

Overall, Floridians under age 45 were significantly more supportive than people 45 and older. But there isn’t a straight line that some might expect with highest support among the youngest people surveyed to lowest support among the oldest.

The age group with the significantly lowest support for legalizing recreational marijuana is aged 55 to 64. Only 44% supported legalization — the only age group that was below 50%.

Among the oldest group of surveyed Floridians, 65 and up, support stood at 52%.

Among those aged 45-54, it was 60% — the same as the overall average among all age groups.

The three youngest age groups were all relatively close: 18-24, 69%; 25-34, 72%, and 35-44, 71%. Those aren’t large enough to be statistically significant, but it’s notable that the youngest group has slightly lower support than the others.

Witkowski said it’s possible that the oldest group may include more people who have experience with medical marijuana that they’ve been prescribed for medical conditions.

“A lot of older adults might be turning to medical marijuana, especially given that we’re trying to reduce the amount of pain medications that we’re giving, especially on a long-term basis.”

The next younger group, with the lowest support for legalization, may not yet be using medical marijuana to the extent older people are. “They’re still not in that group where they might have that access or that need.”

And, she said, it could be a product of the times people between 55 and 64 were in during their formative years. They would have been born from 1959 to 1968 — and come of age during an era of heavy anti-drug messaging.

Then-President Richard Nixon launched the war on drugs in 1971, proclaiming drug abuse as “public enemy number one.” In 1986, then-first lady Nancy Reagan and President Ronald Reagan kicked off her “Just Say No” to drugs campaign.

They may not “see it or know of anyone who uses it or they were kind of brought up in this realm where it was very illegal. The thought of doing it wasn’t something that crossed their minds,” she said. “That narrative was something they grew up with and there’s less acceptance.”

Political affiliation

Support for legalizing recreational marijuana was much higher (71%) among Democrats than among Republicans (49%). Independents (59%) were almost exactly between people who identified with one of the two parties.

Witkowski said Republicans’ support for legalizing recreational marijuana was less than she expected before the survey, especially because the strongest political opposition from elected officials is from Republican officeholders who say “it’s not something that we want in our state. It may not be the case among Republican voters.”

“We expected it to be a lot lower, frankly,” she said, describing it as “a coin toss about whether a Republican going to the polls would support recreational marijuana.”

Gender

Support for legalizing recreational marijuana was 6 percentage points higher among men than among women.

The survey found 63% of men support legalization, compared to 57% of women.

Witkowski said the research doesn’t point to reasons for the differences between men and women. “We don’t have enough data,” she said.

Medical marijuana

The survey also asked several medical marijuana-related questions.

• 83% believe medical marijuana should be legal; 11% illegal.
• 45% said they believe medical marijuana is being abused; 50% disagreed.
• 39% said medical marijuana is too easy to obtain; 57% disagreed.
• 44% said medical marijuana should be taxed by the state; 45% disagreed.

The fine print

Researchers from the University of South Florida and Florida Atlantic University, sponsored by the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, surveyed 600 Florida adults. The poll was conducted Aug. 10 to 21 using an online survey through market research firm Prodege MR.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Because subgroups (such as Democrats and Republicans or men and women) are smaller than in the overall poll, the margins of error are higher for those groups.

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Facebook, Threads.net and Post.news.

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