Poll: No Marijuana Buyers’ Remorse In Colorado

According to a just-released NBC News/Marist College poll, 55 percent of Coloradoans either “actively support” or “favor” state law permitting “adults 21 and older to purchase small quantities of marijuana for their own personal use from regulated, state-licensed businesses.”

That is the same percentage of Coloradoans that voted to approve the law in November 2012.

Not surprisingly, the Marist poll reported that respondent’s support for the state’s liberalized cannabis laws was strongly influenced by one’s political party affiliation.  Democrats said that they back Colorado’s marijuana laws by a margin of 67 percent to 30 percent. Independents expressed support for the law by a margin of 60 percent to 36 percent. By contrast, only 24 percent of Republicans expressed support for the law. (Seventy-three percent said they disapproved of it.)

The Marist poll is the second survey published this year to report that Coloradoans continue to back statewide regulations allowing for adults to grow, buy, and sell cannabis for recreational purposes. In April, the results of a Quinnipiac University poll reported that 54 percent of Colorado voters believed that legalizing marijuana is “good” for the state. Fifty-three percent of respondents also agreed that doing so has “increased personal freedoms in a positive way.”

More recently, a June 2014 nationwide HuffPost.com/YouGov poll reported that 61 percent of Americans – including 52 percent of self-identified Republicans – support Colorado’s efforts to regulate the commercial cannabis market.

During the first six-months of 2014, retail cannabis sales in Colorado have generated some $11 million in new state tax revenue.

The NBC/Marist poll surveyed 1,208 Coloradoans age 18 and older and possesses the margin of error of +/- 2.8 percent.