A recent poll has found strong support for medical marijuana legislation in South Carolina.
Sixty-one percent of the people surveyed last month by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy expressed support for a bill that would allow South Carolina doctors to prescribe medical marijuana for specific conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorders. A total of 31 percent were opposed and 8 percent had no opinion.
The poll showed the lowest support for medical marijuana is in the Upstate, where 53 percent of respondents expressed support and 35 percent were opposed. Support for medical marijuana topped the 60-percent threshold in every other part of South Carolina, according to the poll.
“The numbers in the poll are positive,” said Jill Swing, founder of SC Compassionate Care Alliance, which is one of the groups pushing for medical marijuana legislation.
Swing said she was not surprised that the poll found less support for medical marijuana in the Upstate, which is one of the state’s more conservative areas. Swing said that was the reason that her group held a medical marijuana educational event last weekend in Anderson, which about 50 people attended.
Across the nation, 29 states have approved medical marijuana laws. More than a dozen states, including Georgia and South Carolina, have adopted measures allowing a product known as cannabidiol to be used as treatment for seriously ill children with epilepsy and other seizure-related disorders.
At least three bipartisan medical marijuana measures were introduced in the South Carolina General Assembly last year, but none won passage. Legislators can act on these bills during the current session, which began this week.
The poll by the Washington, D.C.-based firm involved phone interviews with 625 registered South Carolina voters that were conducted from Dec. 6 through Dec. 10. The poll has a margin of error of 4 percent.
