By Victor Skinner | The Center Square
A University of New Orleans survey shows a growing percentage of voters support legalizing recreational marijuana in the Pelican State.
Support for legalizing recreational marijuana increased 4% over the last year to a high of 58% in a survey of 325 randomly selected registered voters between March 28 and April 1. The survey from the university’s Survey Research Center has a margin of error of 5.4%.
“The results of the 2022 survey indicate that a solid majority of registered voters in Louisiana are in favor or legalizing the recreational use of marijuana,” according to the survey report. “Thirty percent are opposed to the idea while 12% said they did not have an opinion on the matter.”
The 2022 survey is the fifth conducted by the pollster since 2018 and results show a dramatic reversal of opinions between 2020 and 2021, when support shifted from 37% in 2020 to 55% in 2021, while opposition shifted from 54% to 36%.
The UNO Survey Research Center noted that supporters are now “nearly double that of those who oppose it.”
“The key difference is certainly younger people, much greater in favor, the older, particularly the senior citizens are opposed,” Edward Chervenak, the center’s director, told WGNO.
A demographic breakdown of the 2022 survey results show 83% of those between the ages of 18 and 34 support legalization, and only 9% oppose. In the 35 to 44 age group, 70% support and 19% oppose. Sixty-three percent of respondents between 45 and 54 support, and 25% oppose. Forty-eight percent of 55- to 64-year-olds support, while only 30% of those over the age of 65 said the same.
Support for legalization was identical among blacks and whites at 58%, and that figure increased to 65% for non-black minorities. A slightly higher percentage of men support legalization compared to women: 63% versus 54%.
“Not surprisingly, opinion is somewhat polarized along party lines,” according to the report. “Democrats are in favor of legalization by a large margin while Republicans are basically split in their position. They are also slightly more likely than Democrats to hesitate expressing an opinion on the issue. Third party adherents/Independents are solidly in favor of legalization.”
Data shows 56% of Democrats, 42% of Republicans, and 79% of “other party” respondents support legalization.
The survey comes a little over two months after the governor’s Drug Policy Board approved a resolution calling for Edwards to oppose the legalization of recreational marijuana. The resolution cited marijuana’s status as a Schedule I Controlled Substance and studies of 11 states with legalized marijuana that showed increases in fatal vehicle crashes and crime.
“It’ll have various negative impacts on education, on mental health, on crime, and other aspects, highway safety,” Warren Montgomery, district attorney for Washington and St. Tammany Parishes who drafted the resolution, told WVUE in January.
State Rep. Richard Nelson, R-Mandeville, who sponsored unsuccessful legislation last session to legalize recreational marijuana, pushed back on the doomsday claims in the resolution.
“You know there’s lies, damn lies, and statistics,” Nelson told the television station.
“I mean that’s what they do. If you have a position, they pick only the studies from 2014 that support their position, which I understand,” he said. “At the same time, I can pick a million studies that do (support legalization), and I think the most convincing studies of all these states that have legalized it is none of them have gone back.”
