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Wyoming Residents Hit New Record of Cannabis Support

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[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]A[/dropcap]ccording to a new survey by the Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center (WYSAC) at the University of Wyoming, almost half of Wyoming residents support legalizing cannabis for recreational use.

Four-fifths of respondents said that they feel medical cannabis should be legal when prescribed by a doctor, while two-thirds of respondents said that they feel that anyone convicted of possessing small amounts of cannabis should not serve time in jail. “This figure has remained steady since we started measuring in 2014,” said Senior Research Scientist Brian Harnisch of WYSAC. “It’s interesting to see that opposition to jail time started high and has remained high, while support for the legalization of both personal and medical marijuana continues to increase year after year.”

Senior Research Scientist Rodney Wambeam feels that support for cannabis is growing due to a decrease in the perceived harm. “Despite the increasing dangers of marijuana use, like addiction or drugged driving, young people, in particular, seem to view marijuana as a safe and natural alternative to alcohol or other illicit drugs,” Wambeam said.

The growth of support has been long, but historically it’s climbing. This survey was the third in a biannual series. Previous surveys showed a rise in support from four points to 41 percent. In that same time, support of medical cannabis in the state grew from seven percent to 81 percent.

The 12-percent-change in support for cannabis legalization was identified after careful research during the series of surveys, when researchers polled 607 random Wyoming residents and weighed the raw data to “nearly perfectly match the actual distribution of voter affiliation in Wyoming,” according to Harnisch.

A majority of younger residents support legalization including 18-24 year olds (63 percent), 25-29-year-olds (58 percent), 35-44-year-olds (53 percent), and 55-64 year olds (61.2 percent). The age groups in majority opposition to legalization are 45-54 year olds (64 percent), 65-74 year olds (67 percent) and 75 and over (81 percent). Polled men in Wyoming showed support of cannabis legalization at 53 percent, which was seven percent higher than that of women.

Even Wyoming Republicans had a lower average than the rest of the country for support of legalizing cannabis, with 51 percent of state conservatives feeling it should be kept illegal, and nationally 53 percent of Republicans support legalization.

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