Majority of Utah Voters Support Medical Marijuana

Salt Lake City, UT (August 28, 2013) — A new poll conducted by Libertas Institute shows that a majority of Utah voters favor legalizing cannabis for medical use. 500 random Utah voters were contacted and administered a questionnaire. The margin of sampling error is ±4.38%.

While 57% of Utah voters oppose a general legalization, 61% approve of legalizing the drug for use in medical situations. Only 28% oppose the effort.

Earlier this week, Libertas Institute published an exclusive interview with Jennifer May, the mother of a child with Dravet syndrome—a severe form of epilepsy that has not been effectively treated after 25 different treatment options have been tried. Other children who have the same syndrome have found significant relief, and a profound improvement in quality of life, using a certain strain of cannabis. Today’s poll results show that there may be significant support among the public for the legislative effort that will soon begin, seeking to legalize medical marijuana—for May’s son, others with the same syndrome, and many other Utahns who would seek medical relief and treatment with cannabis.

“We were honestly quite surprised by the results,” said Connor Boyack, the Institute’s president. “We expected most Republicans in Utah to oppose cannabis for medical needs, and yet more of them support it than oppose it. We are excited to see this proposal develop further, as we strongly believe that individuals should be able to pursue the medical treatments they and their doctors feel would work. No caring individual can look at a child like Jennifer’s and argue that the one treatment that might help him should be denied to him.”

The poll also asked respondents what their religious affiliation is, providing interesting data on how overwhemingly those of Utah’s predominant faith support criminalizing marijuana. For example, 71% of registered Utah voters who are Mormon oppose legalization in general, and 34.5% oppose it legalization even for medical uses—numbers that are far out of sync with the rest of Utahns.

Many other marijuana-related questions were asked in this survey to create a well-rounded picture of where voters currently stand, as a campaign begins to seek for legalization to some degree. Click here for the full results.