Mitch Perry
With 58 percent support, Floridians proved at the polls in 2014 that they supported medical marijuana.
Unfortunately, the magic number was 60 percent, which is why the issue is probably going to be back on the ballot in 2016.
A new poll by Quinnipiac University released Monday shows huge support for a pot proposal, with 84 percent of surveyed registered voters in Florida saying they support legalization of medical marijuana. Just 14 percent expressed opposition. Also, 52 percent said they support full legalization of marijuana and 44 percent opposed.
It should be noted, however, that similar polls by Quinnipiac in 2014 also showed such stratospheric numbers that never came to be.
A poll conducted on May 5, 2014 by Quinnipiac showed 88 percent of registered voters then approved the issue.
However, that poll, like the current one, does not contain the same language as written in the state’s proposed constitutional amendment. Other polling companies did so in 2014, and those surveys never showed as high support as Quinnipiac’s.
Proposals for a medical marijuana bill floating in the Legislature aren’t getting much traction. That’s why the same people behind Amendment 2 last year — United for Care — are working on collecting signatures for a slightly revised medical pot constitutional amendment in 2016.
The Quinnipiac poll was taken March 17 to 28 of 1,087 Florida voters, with a + or – 3 percent margin of error.
