A new poll reveals that Arizona may be heading toward the legalization of marijuana.
The survey of 600 Arizona residents by phone were asked about the controversial topic; 52 percent favored legalization, 41 percent were against it, and 7 percent were unsure. The margin of error was 4 percent.
“We polled this … three years ago when it was on the ballot in 2016 and we correctly predicted that it would lose,” said Noah Rudnick, the senior data analyst.
“This is the first time we’ve polled that over 50 percent of people are in support of marijuana legalization, which is a big deal, especially as it looks like it’s going to be up for a vote again this cycle.”
The majority of Democratic voters, 73 percent, supported legalization, 19 percent opposed it, and 8 percent were unsure. Contrarily, 58 percent of Republicans opposed it, 35 percent supported it, and 7 percent were unsure.
Independents, like in many issues, were split; 49 percent supported it, 43 percent opposed it, and 8 percent were unsure.
“We saw a thing where last time when we polled this … Democrats weren’t as on board with it but Republicans were very much opposed to it,” said Rudnick.
“And this time you see it’s sort of flipped the other way — so now Democrats are very much in favor of it, even older Democrats are 70 percent in favor, and Republicans are seeing cracks.”
Rudnick credits the increase of supporters to the poll’s word choices. Clarifying that marijuana would only be for adult consumption may have swayed voters to support it.
More than half of men, 57 percent, favored legalization, while 47 percent of women supported it. Those aged 18 to 54 were more out to support it than those 65 or older.
“The big opposition, it mostly comes from older Republicans, older independents, they’re still not as much on board although they are coming around,” said Rudnick.
Rudnick believes marijuana would be legalized if it were to be placed on the ballot this year.