Politics
Three In Five Kansans Back Legalizing Recreational Marijuana—And 70% Want Medical Cannabis—New Poll Finds
About three in five Kansas adults support legalizing adult-use marijuana—and an even greater majority backs legalizing cannabis for medical use—according to a new poll.
The annual “Kansas Speaks Survey” from the Fort Hays State University (FHSU) Docking Institute of Public Affairs asked residents about a wide range of policy issues, including where they stands on cannabis reform.
As in past years, the poll showed strong support for ending prohibition, with 59 percent of respondents voicing support for recreational marijuana legalization and 70 percent in favor of allowing medical cannabis.
For the adult-use legalization question, Democrats and independents were the most supportive at 64 percent for both cohorts. A 49 percent plurality of Republicans said they were in favor of the reform.
There was clear bipartisan support for legalizing medical cannabis, with 78 percent of independents, 75 percent of Democrats and 59 percent of Republicans aligned in support of the policy change.
In response to a separate question, 65 percent of Kansans said they’d support adult-use legalization in order to create a new source of tax revenue for the state.
Additionally, 65 percent said they were either “highly likely” or “somewhat likely” to vote for a political candidate who backs medical marijuana legalization.
The survey involved interviews with 488 Kansas adults from September 26-October 10.
While Kansans have consistently expressed their dissatisfaction with the status quo of cannabis prohibition in multiple surveys over the years, reform has long stalled in the conservative legislature. That’s despite the governor’s repeatedly calls for medical cannabis legalization and openness to creating an adult-use market.
Gov. Laura Kelly (D) renewed her call for action in April, asserting that it’s time for lawmakers in the state to finally legalize medical marijuana.
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Notably, lawmakers earlier this year considered but ultimately rejected an amendment that would have added cannabis to a right-to-try bill that took effect without the governor’s signature. The lawmaker behind that effort, Sen. Cindy Holscher (D), said her intention was not to create a public medical marijuana system, however.
The House of Representatives passed a medical cannabis bill in 2021, for example, but it stalled out in the Senate. And after numerous hearings on the issue, the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee voted last March 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.
After the Senate committee shelved the limited medical marijuana bill, Kelly issued a statement urging the public to contact their representatives to demand that they take the legislation back up for action, but that did not happen before the end of the legislative session.
Senate President Ty Masterson (R) said in 2023 that was open to a discussion about a limited medical marijuana program. But in January, he appeared less welcoming to the idea, calling medical legalization a “nonstarter,” suggesting the policy change would lead to a surge in “gang activity” and put kids at risk.
He also suggested voters didn’t understand medical marijuana. “I think what people see when they think of medical, they’re thinking of, you know, palliative care and things like that,” he said.
Masterson, who helped kill the House-passed medical marijuana bill in 2021, has also downplayed popular support for broader adult-use cannabis legalization and suggested voters don’t fully understand the policy change.
Last year, meanwhile, a state legislative panel voted against a 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 Philip Steffan.
