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Poll sees support of Michigan marijuana legalization

marijuana leaf
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via Wikimedia | Public Domain
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If legalizing and taxing marijuana were put on the November ballot would Michiganders approve it? That’s what the Michigan Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws wanted to find out commissioning a statewide poll.

NORML is gauging the success of the following: If there are enough valid petition signatures collected in the coming months, a proposal to legalize and tax marijuana in Michigan will be placed on the November election ballot.

Lansing-based EPIC-MRA asked 600 Michigan voters how they feel about legalizing it, and 'imposing an excise tax of up to 10 percent on non-medical marijuana'. 

Bernie Porn is EPIC President.

"53 percent majority said that they would vote yes in favor of a ballot proposal, 45 percent would vote no," Porn says. "And that’s up three points from December of 2014 when a 50 to 46 percent bare majority said they would vote yes."

And it’s up six points from when a September of 2013 poll was conducted.

While there’s a trend in favor of legalizing and taxing pot, those opposed break down by age gender and political party.

Sixty-seven percent of Democrats, 57 percent of Independents and only 39 percent of Republicans are in favor of legalization.

Porn tells us the majority of senior voters are opposed, but it's younger voters who may impact the outcome of this ballot proposal.

"As you near the Presidential election more and more younger voters, especially in the last few weeks, decide to participate in the Presidential election - they’re the so-called surge voters," he says. "And when and if they begin to participate I think that that would automatically cause an increase in support given that 75 percent of younger voters are in favor of it."

As of now there are two marijuana initiatives circulating petitions.

Patrick joined WGVU Public Media in December, 2008 after eight years of investigative reporting at Grand Rapids' WOOD-TV8 and three years at WYTV News Channel 33 in Youngstown, Ohio. As News and Public Affairs Director, Patrick manages our daily radio news operation and public interest television programming. An award-winning reporter, Patrick has won multiple Michigan Associated Press Best Reporter/Anchor awards and is a three-time Academy of Television Arts & Sciences EMMY Award winner with 14 nominations.
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