Politics
Kansans Support Legalizing Marijuana For Recreational And Medical Use, Poll Shows
There is strong support for legalizing marijuana for both recreational and medical uses in Kansas, including majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents, according to a new poll.
The latest edition of the annual Kansas Speaks survey, conducted by Fort Hays State University’s Docking Institute of Public Affairs, shows that Kansans back legalization of recreational marijuana by a margin of 58 percent to 21 percent. That includes 63 percent of Democrats, 54 percent of Republicans and 60 percent of independents who favor the policy change.
Support for legalizing medical cannabis is even stronger, at 65 percent to 15 percent—including 72 percent of Democrats, 59 percent of Republicans and 69 percent of independents on board with allowing patient access to marijuana.
The poll, which was released on Monday, separately asked whether respondents support legalizing and taxing marijuana as a way to raise revenue for the state, with 61 percent in favor and 21 percent opposed. More people said they support legal cannabis as a revenue generator than back increasing taxes on tobacco or alcohol.
The survey additionally found that 59 percent of Kansas adults say they are highly or somewhat likely to vote for political candidates who support legalizing medical cannabis, while 17 percent are unlikely to do so.
The poll involved interviews with 603 Kansas adults over the age of 18 from September 23-October 16.
The results come as Kansas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cindy Holscher is highlighting her support for legalizing marijuana and calling out her GOP opponent, Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson (R), for blocking medical cannabis legislation.
“I believe close to 70 percent of the population is in favor of legalization, but you get a few people once in a while who will say, ‘Well, we don’t want to bring that here,'” Holscher, who currently serves as a state senator, recently said.
“My response: It’s already here. If you drive along state line in Johnson County, you drive along the border on the southern edge to Oklahoma, and you see the dispensaries—there’s Kansas plates there,” she said. “So it’s already here.”
“But what’s happening is we aren’t getting the revenue for it, and we aren’t getting our guardrails in place. We need to do that,” Holscher said. “The revenue that’s projected to come in could help us do things like better funding public education in terms of special ed, could help us in terms of free lunches for kids—making that part of the day. You know there are things that we could do with that money to help build up our critical infrastructure and be better focused on our people.”
Asked how she would get cannabis reform through a Republican-controlled legislature, Holscher said she and allies succeeded in passing a medical cannabis bill through the state House of Representatives in 2021 that went on to die in the Senate—putting blame for the ultimate defeat on Masterson.
“You know, I got it passed in the House a few years ago. Guess who stopped it in the Senate? Ty Masterson,” she said. “The things that people want, the things that people support, he has been stopping.”
Masterson, for his part, said in 2023 that was open to a discussion about a limited medical marijuana program. But in 2024, he appeared less welcoming to the idea, calling medical cannabis legalization a “nonstarter,” suggesting the policy change would lead to a surge in “gang activity” and put kids at risk.
Incumbent Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) said last year that it’s time for lawmakers in the state to finally legalize medical marijuana.
After the House of Representatives passed a medical cannabis bill in 2021, it stalled out in the Senate. And while the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee held numerous hearings on the issue, it voted in 2024 to table a limited medical marijuana pilot program bill.
A later effort to revive the medical cannabis bill on the Senate floor ultimately fell short. That measure was filed about a month after the House rejected a Democratic lawmaker’s amendment to a broader drug scheduling bill that would have removed marijuana entirely from the state’s controlled substances law, effectively legalizing it.
In 2024, meanwhile, a state legislative panel voted against a proposed recommendation that lawmakers legalize medical cannabis in 2025.
The legislature’s Special Committee on Medical Marijuana, charged with consideration of possible pathways for medical cannabis reform, said legalizing medical marijuana was premature and that lawmakers should first wait to see how federal rescheduling and other reform efforts unfold.
Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
