Medical-marijuana advocates released a poll Monday they said shows overwhelming support — by about a 2-to-1 ratio — for licensing and regulating cannabis dispensaries popping up across Colorado.
The poll comes as lawmakers are drafting legislation to regulate the burgeoning industry, a response to legal developments that have left local governments and medical marijuana dispensaries seeking clarity.
“There’s vast public support for responsibly regulated medical marijuana,” said Matt Brown, head of Coloradoans for Medical Marijuana Regulation, a coalition of dispensaries and growers that helped sponsor the poll.
The telephone poll of 500 likely Colorado voters asked just one question regarding medical marijuana.
In the survey, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.38 percentage points, respondents were told there were “some proposals that voters might be voting on in the election next November.” Then they were presented a three-part proposal that included establishing state-licensed medical-marijuana dispensaries, allowing communities to limit the number of dispensaries and subject them to zoning, and requiring patients to register with the state while setting limits on the amount of marijuana they can buy. Finally, they were asked whether they would vote yes or no on the proposal.
In fact, medical-marijuana advocates said, there is no effort to place any measure before voters, and the question was merely an attempt to gauge public sentiment.
Still, 64 percent of respondents said “yes” to the plan.
Ken Bickers, a political scientist at the University of Colorado-Boulder, said it was unclear from the poll exactly what voters are supporting.
“It (the proposal) has got three different aspects to it, and there’s enough there that people could agree with any one of those and disagree with others. It’s not clear what that 64 percent is referring to,” he said.
He also noted the poll did not begin by asking respondents whether they supported medical marijuana and didn’t offer them the option of prohibiting dispensaries.
