Peter Schorsch
New polling shows dwindling support for a proposed constitutional amendment legalizing recreational marijuana.
Conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, the measure shows that if the election were today, the ballot amendment would struggle to achieve majority support, let alone the 60% threshold required for constitutional amendments to pass muster.
That’s assuming the amendment’s soft supporters all break in favor of the amendment at the polls — just 37% of registered Florida voters surveyed said they were a hard yes on recreational pot, with 13% saying they were “somewhat” supportive of the proposal.
Meanwhile, a third of voters said they were strongly against legalization and 11% said they were somewhat opposed. Just 5% are undecided.
The results are a significant departure from a recent UNF poll, released last month, which showed seven in 10 Florida voters were high on the proposal compared to 29% who said they were opposed.
In a polling memo, Consensus Communications commented on the apparent dip, comparing it to the 2010 amendment campaign for “Hometown Democracy,” which would have required local government land use plans to earn voter approval. That amendment also polled well above 60% early on but come Election Day it only had 33% support.
“The bottom line is that this survey proves the vulnerability of this amendment to a well-disciplined, well-resourced campaign,” the memo states.
As it stands, the amendment has miles to go before it qualifies for the ballot. The most recent tally shows it is about three-quarters of the way to securing the required 891,523 signatures from registered voters. It is also subject to judicial and financial impact reviews.
Still, Consensus notes, “The battle is far from over, and with the marijuana industry on track to spend $50 million on the signature gathering phase of the campaign alone, we can only assume that they will spend another $50 million or exponentially more to attempt to win voter approval.”
Mason Dixon conducted the poll March 27-30 by live telephone interview. It has a sample size of 625 registered voters and a margin of error of plus or minus 4%.
Here is the full polling memo:
19 comments
Earl Pitts American
April 6, 2023 at 6:54 am
Good morning America,
The legalisation of recreational weed will kill 50% of our elderly population off 10 years sooner than if we do not make recerational weed legal.
Now that will totally free up a lot of Social Security money your govornment can spend on green new deal, sex reassignment surgery for your kiddies, and money to countries that hate the USA. So thats the main driving force behind recreational weed.
But whats in rec. weed for you?
The way recreational weed will work its majic of killing off our annoying elders 10 years sooner is a multifacited genious plan. First and formost weed makes everyone forget stuff which will be deadly to G.mom and G.pop with regards to forgetting to take their “old folks meds”. Next weed makes everyone lazy so G.pop and G.mom are guranteed 4.5 extra hours in the lazyboy recliner which is very deadly. Then weed makes everyone over eat. Imagine G.mom and G.pop with an additional 75 pounds…yeah deadly.
For G.mom and G.pops adult childern how about you getting your inheritance 10 years earlier? Hmmmm? You like the sound of that dont ya?
Recreational Weed.
Thank you America,
Earl Pitts American
Earl Pitts Is A Pedo
April 6, 2023 at 2:09 pm
https://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/sops/flyer.jsf?personId=75305
Newt
April 6, 2023 at 6:07 pm
Earl Pitts hates weed and spits batshat craazy nonesense. Roll one up Earl, kick bach, and relax. You’ll love longer.
Billy the Bamboozler McPill Mill
April 6, 2023 at 7:22 am
They need county jail fodder…more tools to help create a permanent lower class. More tools to use for labor descrimination. “Oh, you got caught for pot? Work for minimum wage or take a hike.” “Says here you’re a criminal. We don’t have to listen to you.” “I smell pot. Papa Bear needs a new police car. You’re coming with me.” “You didn’t pay taxes for that? You’re going downtown.”
Tropical
April 6, 2023 at 7:40 am
It doesn’t matter if Florida voter’s pass it.
desantis would squash it.
Our ‘representatives’ continue to fail us.
William
April 6, 2023 at 7:56 am
This is great news, we need to keep drugs away from children and those that are vulnerable to abusing them.
Tom
April 6, 2023 at 9:02 am
So you prefer people buying pot from gang bangers which encourages smuggling and the host of human suffering that goes with it rather than having them walk safety into a store, show an ID and buy weed without being upsold to meth, coke or whatever else street dealers sell?
It’s you choice but it sounds pretty narrow minded to me. People who smoke will continue to do so regardless of where they buy it. I get that conservatives want to turn the clocks back 50 years but with some things, better off we live in the present.
Christopher S Davis
April 6, 2023 at 9:16 am
William prefers Prohibition. Because that works. LOL. Or is this an fairly transparent shift away from (m)aligning weed with “the blacks” and trying instead to tie weed to the GOP’s new bogeythem, the LGBTQIA+. The real problem with weed is that when somebody uses weed, they might spend some time using their brain for the purpose of thinking. If somebody thinks too much, they might buy a book. If they buy a book and it’s not signed “By Ron Des Antics” then it must be burned, and summer’s coming up which means no buring because Fleur D’uh will already be on fire ’cause it’s summer.
Dr. Franklin Waters
April 6, 2023 at 10:47 am
Agreed.
And since alcohol is the worst and most widely abused drug in the world, I saw we start there and bring back alcohol prohibition now. Tobacco too.
Charlotte Greenbarg
April 6, 2023 at 8:12 am
It needs to die before it gets any traction
Peggy
April 6, 2023 at 11:10 am
Nah, it needs to be legal at the federal level.
Boaz
April 8, 2023 at 6:16 pm
As the basic tenets of federalism prescribe, such matters should be left to the states. When the 18th Amendment to the Constitution of these United States was subsequently repealed by the 21st Amendment, alcohol prohibition was not universally repealed. Rather, alcohol prohibition was no longer a federal, or national, policy. The issue was left to the states and local jurisdictions, some of which would go on to maintain and enforce alcohol prohibition and punish its violators. Just as with alcohol prohibition, marijuana prohibition should be left to the states and should never again become a federal, or national policy. Surprisingly to some, it was Justice Clarence Thomas, in a lone dissenting opinion two (2) decades ago, opined that the war on drugs violated the basic tenets of federalism and was therefore unconstitutional. His opinion was opposed by both conservative and liberal Justices who feared his opinion would not only end the war on drugs but could be so interpreted as to abolish a myriad of federal agencies and national, or federal, policies defended by establishment members of both political parties, public policymakers, and special interests.
Christopher S Davis
April 6, 2023 at 9:11 am
Just 37% of registered Florida voters surveyed said they were a hard yes on rec weed. Just 37%. JUST 37%? Are 37% of Florida voters a hard yes (or a hard no) on anything? Ever? 37% being a hard yes, that sounds like a tidal wave of overwhelming support. And yet the Fleur D’uh state government is too busy having drama with Mickey Mouse for paying any attention to constituents. With 37% being a hard yes, if you got 30% as a “Maybe” and half of them vote yet, that’s safely above 50%+1. So where’s our effing rec weed?
Boaz
April 7, 2023 at 10:41 pm
It’s 60%, not 50%+1.
tom palmer
April 6, 2023 at 2:34 pm
I haven’t seen any petition gatherers yet and little media coverage. As recent election results show, polls are becoming a crap shoot and may not be indicative of public sentiment. The Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment is not a good comparison because it never really had widespread public support, had well-funded and organized opposition and was not an issue the public had been debating for half a century or more.
Newt
April 6, 2023 at 6:18 pm
Parents need to keep drugs away from their childten. It is not right to limit cannabis use for responsible padults over 21 simply because parents can’t contol their childrens behavior. Better parenting, not more repression, is what’s needed
John Thomas
April 7, 2023 at 8:26 am
Science and widespread experience have shown cannabis is not addictive and has no significant harms. – Yet, more than 400,000 innocent Americans are arrested for simple marijuana possession most years and made second-class citizens – for life!
They will forever face large obstacles to decent employment, education, travel, housing, government benefits, and will always go into court with one strike against them. They can even have their children taken away!
20 million Americans are now locked away in this very un-American sub-class because of this bogus “criminal” record, and the rest of the country is terrorized by that threat. That has a horrible effect on the whole country, being a catastrophic waste of human potential.
It also breeds massive disrespect for law enforcement, the judiciary, and government in general.
The fraudulently enacted cannabis prohibition has never accomplished one positive thing. It has only caused vast amounts of crime, corruption, violence, death and the diminishing of everyone’s freedom.
Let’s quickly join the 21 Free States that have ended this insane, vicious persecution. — It’s way past time to end the American Inquisition!
Wex
April 7, 2023 at 10:24 am
Really stupid article written by a lonely right wing fringe nut.
Boaz
April 7, 2023 at 10:47 pm
Notwithstanding recent polling, it will likely pass the constitutional threshold of 60% or more. I’d much rather see the Florida legislature legalize it while it excercises its authority to regulate it in such a manner as to keep it out of the hands of children and adolescents, such as with alcoholic beverages.
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