Politics
On Marijuana, Voters Want Feds To Butt Out Of State Laws, Polls Find
The move by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week to rescind guidance that has generally allowed states to implement their own marijuana laws without federal interference is in contravention of President Trump’s campaign pledges to respect local cannabis policies, and is being roundly criticized by members of Congress from both sides of the aisle.
It is also deeply unpopular with the American people, according to a trio of new polls.
Seventy percent of U.S. voters oppose “the government enforcing federal laws against marijuana in states that have already legalized medical or recreational marijuana,” a Quinnipiac University poll published on Thursday found.
In every political, age, racial and other demographic in the survey, more voters oppose federal interference in state marijuana laws than support it.
A separate Rasmussen survey, also released on Thursday, which was only available to paying subscribers, was described as finding that “most voters want to keep marijuana regulated at the state level, not a federal one.”
And a YouGov poll commissioned by HuffPost earlier this week found that 56 percent of Americans opposed federal intervention in state cannabis laws.
The new Quinnipiac survey also found that 58 percent of voters support legalizing marijuana outright, and 91 percent are in favor of medical cannabis.
In October, a Gallup poll found that 64 percent of Americans back legalizing marijuana.
