Anti-Marijuana Group's Own Poll Shows Big Support For Legalization

By Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment

A set of new national and state surveys funded by the prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) found that a large majority of Americans think cannabis should be legal for either medical or recreational purposes.

That’s not how SAM is presenting the findings of the Emerson College polls, though. The group is attempting to argue that when people are presented with several marijuana reform options that only a minority support full adult-use legalization.

The survey found that, of the four separate options included, support for recreational legalization was highest, with 38 percent of U.S. voters backing it. That was followed by support for medical cannabis legalization (30 percent), decriminalization (19 percent) and prohibition (14 percent).

In other words, about 68 percent of Americans favor some form of legal, regulated marijuana—the types of systems that SAM regularly works to oppose when proposals go before lawmakers during legislative sessions or voters at the ballot box.

But the group is really leaning into the fact that recreational cannabis on its own only got a plurality of support. In one chart, they contrasted adult-use responses with all three other options to make it look like people prefer “Other Non-Legalization Marijuana Policies.”