Nearly eight in 10 Massachusetts voters planning to participate in the Democratic primary say they want the state to maintain legal recreational marijuana sales, according to a new poll from Suffolk University and The Boston Globe.
The survey found that 79% would vote to keep the state’s current recreational marijuana law in place, compared with 16.2% who would repeal it. Another 4.4% were undecided and 0.4% declined to answer.
The results come less than three months before Massachusetts voters decide the fate of Question 8, which the Secretary of the Commonwealth officially lists as “Prohibit Retail Sale of Adult Recreational Use Marijuana.” The measure will appear on the November 3 statewide ballot.
Support for maintaining legalization was broad across virtually every demographic group examined in the poll.
Among those ages 18 to 35, 90% favored keeping the law, as did 81% of those ages 36 to 45, 73% of voters ages 46 to 55, 77% of those ages 56 to 65 and 74% of those 66 and older. Support also stood at 81% among men and 78% among women.
Geographically, keeping recreational marijuana legal received support from 74% of respondents in Worcester and western Massachusetts, 82% in the northeast, 76% in Suffolk County and 80% in southeastern Massachusetts and the Cape. Majorities of white, Black and Hispanic respondents also favored keeping the law.
The poll surveyed 500 registered Massachusetts voters from August 13 through August 16 who said they were very or somewhat likely to vote in the September 1 Democratic primary or had already voted by mail. The sample included both registered Democrats and unenrolled voters participating in the Democratic primary. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
Massachusetts voters originally approved recreational marijuana legalization in 2016. Question 8 would give voters another opportunity this November to decide whether the state should continue allowing retail recreational marijuana sales.
