Utah Police Poll: 65% Support Mmj

[indicabush]

Sixty-five percent of respondents to a poll by Utah’s Cache County Sheriff’s Office favor legalizing medical marijuana in the state. The results were released publicly on March 28 via Facebook.

According to the poll, of the 306 respondents, 65 percent supported, 25 percent opposed, and 10 percent had no opinion of legalizing medical cannabis.

Cache County is home to Utah State University, previously the Agricultural College of Utah, and has consistently been among the top 10 safest metropolitan areas in the United States. In many ways Cache County provides a picture perfect representation of what a rural hometown means to most Americans.

The results very closely resemble those of two others conducted earlier this year. A poll conducted by Y2 Analytics for the Drug Policy Project of Utah and the Libertas Institute between February 26 and February 28 of 400 likely voters showed 72 percent of likely voters support legalizing medical cannabis. A second, subsequent poll conducted for Utah Policy by Dan Jones and Associates between March 3 and 5 of 406 registered Utah voters showed 66 percent support.

The results of the Cache County poll are particularly interesting given that in 2012, in its annual report, the Cache-Rich Drug Task Force also noted that “the legalization of medical grade marijuana and marijuana edibles to infiltrate into Utah” has made it “more accessible and problematic.”

In fact, marijuana arrests accounted for 38 percent of all drug arrests for the Cache-Rich Drug Task Force in 2012, likely driven by patients traveling to the nearby states of Montana, Colorado, Nevada, California or Oregon to access medical-grade cannabis. But even those who stay home, apparently, demand reform in the Beehive State.