A majority of Ohioans favor legalizing recreational marijuana but support has not significantly changed in the past six months despite widespread advertising and campaigning for a legalization measure that appears on the November ballot, according to poll results released Thursday.
In a new Quinnipiac University poll, 53 percent of Ohio voters support legalizing “small amounts of marijuana for personal use” while 44 percent oppose it. That’s largely unchanged from an April poll where 52 percent of Ohioans supported legalization and 44 percent opposed it.
Support for medical marijuana increased slightly from 84 percent in favor in April to 90 percent in favor in October. Opposition to medical marijuana has shrunk from 25 percent in April to only 9 percent in October.
Ohioans will vote this year on Issue 3, which would legalize recreational and medical marijuana use and sales in Ohio. Commercial marijuana could only be grown at 10 sites belonging to investors in ResponsibleOhio, the political action committee pushing the measure. Ohio adults could grow up to four flowering marijuana plants at a time, provided they obtain a $50 homegrow license and keep the plants in a secure area away from public view.
Quinnipiac did not ask voters specifically about Issue 3, but it is the only independent poll to publicly release responses from Ohioans on the topic of marijuana.
Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said the results shouldn’t be viewed as an opinion on Issue 3. He said the same questions about marijuana are used in each of the 10 states polled so comparisons can be made across states and over time.
“We’re not trying to replicate the ballot question — we’re trying to get a general sense for how people feel about marijuana,” Brown said in an interview.
But ResponsibleOhio released a statement claiming the poll supports passage of Issue 3.
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