71% of Vermonters Support Medical Marijuana

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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Zogby International poll released today shows strong support for legal access to medical marijuana among likely Vermont voters: 71 percent support the medical marijuana bill currently pending in the Vermont House.

The telephone poll was commissioned by the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) and conducted from March 19 to 22, surveying 502 randomly selected, likely Vermont voters. The poll has a margin of error of ±4.5 percentage points. Numerous other state and national polls have shown similar, strong support for medical marijuana.

Asked whether they support pending legislation to allow seriously ill patients "to use and grow their own marijuana for medical purposes, so long as their physician approves," 71.2 percent of those surveyed said yes while only 21.4 percent said no, with the rest undecided. Support for the measure cut across political and demographic boundaries: Republicans supported the bill by a margin of 50.3 percent to 37.6 percent, while the margin among Democrats was 85.4 percent to 10.1 percent. The measure drew solid support among all age groups and among self-identified conservatives, moderates, and liberals.

Full results are available at http://www.mpp.org/pdf/VT_03_2004_poll.pdf.

Eight states -- Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawai'i, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington -- have enacted similar laws. The Vermont medical marijuana bill passed the Senate last year and now awaits action in the House. In the March 2 primary, Burlington voters expressed overwhelming support for medical marijuana legislation, passing Question 9 by a margin of 83 to 17 percent.

"Vermonters, like the rest of the country, strongly support legal access to medical marijuana for seriously ill patients," said Nancy Lynch, state organizer for the Vermont Marijuana Policy Project.

Neal Levine, director of state policies for MPP, added, "Vermonters have made their support for protecting patients absolutely clear, and it is time for legislators to listen to the people who elected them and send the medical marijuana bill to the governor without further delay."

With more than 14,000 members and 65,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP works to minimize the harm associated with marijuana -- both the consumption of marijuana and the laws that are intended to prohibit such use. MPP believes that the greatest harm associated with marijuana is imprisonment. For more information, please see MarijuanaPolicy.org.