April 06, 2015
While bills that would legalize medical marijuana use in Pennsylvania are still sitting in committee in both the state House and Senate, a new poll shows residents are overwhelmingly in favor of passing them.
The Quinnipac University poll surveyed 1,036 Pennsylvanians, and found that 88 percent support medical marijuana, while 10 percent oppose it. When respondents were asked about legalizing small amounts of the drug for personal use, the majority was much smaller, as 51 percent support it while 45 percent oppose it.
Considering the margin of error in the poll is 3 percent, the support for medical marijuana seems like a consensus while the support for recreational use is more of a toss-up. The political affiliation of respondents was evenly split, with Republicans, Democrats, and Independents each taking up 31 percent of the sample.
The flip side to those numbers is that only 15 percent of Pennsylvanians said they would "definitely" or "probably" use marijuana if it was legal, while 83 percent said they "definitely" or "probably" would not. So although most residents support medical marijuana, and about half support recreational use, most of those people wouldn't smoke it.
