Poll: South Carolina Voters Oppose Federal Interference In State Marijuana Laws

Originally published at blog.NORML.org

South Carolina voters, including some two-thirds of Republicans, do not believe that the incoming administration ought to interfere with the enactment of state laws legalizing marijuana, according to polling data conducted by Public Policy Polling and published today by Marijuana-Majority.com.

Sixty-five percent of South Carolina believe “[S]tates should be able to carry out their own marijuana laws without federal interference.” Seventy-three percent of Independents endorsed the notion, as did 66 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of Democrats.

Only 16 percent of voters agreed that the federal government should continue to “arrest and prosecute people who are following state marijuana laws.”

Similar support has been voiced among voters in the other early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire, where super-majorities oppose federal interference in state marijuana laws.

Nationwide polls have reported similar results. Gallup pollsters reported that 64 percent of respondents oppose federal interference in state laws that allow for the legal use of cannabis by adults, while a poll commissioned by the think-tank Third Way found that six out of ten voters believe that states, not the federal government, should authorize and enforce marijuana policy. Most recently, a 2015 nationwide Pew poll reported that a strong majority of Americans — including 64 percent of Independents, 58 percent of Democrats, and 54 percent of Republicans — believe that the federal government should not enforce laws in states that allow marijuana use.