Coloradans Split On Whether Pot Hurts State’s Image: Poll

According to a recent Quinnipiac University Poll, 51% of overall  Colorado voters said that recent legal marijuana measures are bad for the state’s wholesome image (with a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points).

But does it matter?

Legal marijuana doesn’t really appear to be going away, despite the fact that the poll also found that only 10% of Coloradans polled had tried marijuana since it was legalized on January 1.

The poll also found that 57% of  voters in the 18 to 29 demographic believe that legal marijuana is good for the state’s image, which is a little bit lower than I may have thought. A bit higher than expected was the finding that 67% of voters older than 65 said that legal marijuana is bad for the state’s image. One has to wonder if more elderly responded to the poll than other age categories, similar to them having a higher turnout on election day.

64 % of voters say they would be “very uncomfortable” riding in a car with a driver who has smoked or consumed moderate amounts of marijuana, with 17% saying they would be “very uncomfortable.”, which is a testament to the fact that people are starting to understand that marijuana is not really like alcohol in that the laws can’t accurately be drawn up the same ways, just for starters.

Will this study matter? Probably not.

Most interestingly, only 17% of the Colorado voters polled said they would be “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to try marijuana infused brownies if they were brought to a party. 12% would be totally opposed, with a whopping 70 percent who would be “very unlikely” to try the brownies.

So while Coloradans are pretty much down with your own personal choice to get down on some edibles, they probably are going to pass themselves and not risk overdosing (which will not kill you, but will definitely make you have a bad time if you overdo it). It does seem that edibles are a bit intimidating for people without experience with marijuana edibles- we here at Weedist have had a few old posts to help out folks who might be interested in trying edibles, and we’ve got a few more coming soon!

This poll, while definitely interesting, probably won’t do much to stop legal marijuana sales, which are not only going strong in Colorado but not even yet begun in Washington. What the study most certainly does not address is just how many people are coming from out of state, where so many legal marijuana customers are coming; of course I can understand that this study was just for the purpose of Coloradans, but it still puts that low number in perspective compared to actual sales.

I think that the “wholesome” part of the question will most likely get lost as this study gets reported on in the next few days, which is inevitable. However, it’s pretty significant just how many people recognize that while cannabis may not always be the choice for them (or brownies, at least), the majority still voted to say that legal sales for adults would be reasonable. The market certainly seems to agree, even if the slight majority of those voters polled kinda don’t.