I<\/span>n new poll announced Monday, nearly two out of three New Yorkers surveyed said they support the legalization of marijuana for adult recreational use in their state\u00a0\u2014 especially when it comes to paying the bills!<\/p>\n The poll,\u00a0conducted by Emerson College<\/a>\u00a0and commissioned by the\u00a0Marijuana Policy Project\u00a0<\/a>Foundation and the\u00a0Drug Policy Alliance<\/a>, was conducted from Nov. 16-18 and surveyed 600 registered voters from around the state. The results showed that 62 percent of New York voters support making marijuana use legal for adults 21 and older, with only 28 percent opposed.<\/p>\n The survey found that voters are far more supportive of legalizing and taxing marijuana compared to other options presented as solutions for closing the state\u2019s budget deficit. In October, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo reminded everyone just how deep in the hole they were,\u00a0telling supporters,<\/a>\u00a0\u201cWe need $4 billion just to get to zero. And that\u2019s without a penny more being spent.\u201d On top of that, the state could be facing federal cuts to their budget, as the upcoming fiscal year\u2019s budget continues to be debated in Washington. For example, a repeal of the Affordable Care Act would have a devastating impact on New York\u2019s health care system<\/a> and could see the state\u2019s net losses reach up to $19 billion, which Cuomo said would be unmanageable.<\/p>\n But fear not, broke Big Apple! The poll found 60 percent of respondents supported legalizing and taxing marijuana to help address New York\u2019s financial problems, with 28 percent not supporting the idea. The poll also offered some other options to solve the fiscal crisis \u2014 including increasing sales or income taxes, increasing tolls, or cutting public education or other services \u2014\u00a0but between only 15 percent and 27 percent of voters supported those options.<\/p>\n \u201cThe strong support for legal marijuana use challenges New York elected officials who continue to support ineffective, racially biased, and unjust enforcement of marijuana laws,\u201d said Kassandra Frederique, New York State Director for the Drug Policy Alliance in a statement<\/a> on the poll\u2019s findings. Frederique also called the poll a signal that New Yorkers favor using revenue from a legal marijuana market to address our budget deficit and lawmakers would be wise to heed their opinion.<\/p>\n \u201cHow New York decides to reform marijuana laws provides an opportunity to repair the significant harms prohibition causes in vulnerable communities across the state by centering racial and economic justice,\u201d said Frederique.<\/p>\n NYC-based Marijuana Majority Chairman Tom Angell told Cannabis Now that the poll should definitely help the push in the state capital.<\/p>\n \u201cThis should make a lot more lawmakers look more seriously at supporting legalization bills in Albany, especially in light of the budget situation,\u201d Angell said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And as for those lawmakers on either side of the aisle in Albany, they\u2019ll have plenty to take away from this. Most New Yorkers on either side of the aisle would likely support a legalization effort with 63 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of Republicans who were polled in favor. However, those Independents who didn\u2019t identify with either party had the most support for legal cannabis by far: 71 percent!<\/p>\n The results also showed the age-old generation gap battle in pot policy reform is still going strong in New York<\/a>. The only group that didn\u2019t support legalization were people over the age of 75, with more than half coming out against the idea and only 37 percent supporting. But those 55 to 74-year-olds are a bit more hip, with 56 percent supporting legalization. From there, the support jumps up 9 percent for every twenty years younger the respondent gets, with 18-34 seeing nearly three-quarters of respondents in support.<\/p>\n Also according to the data, there was no significant difference in support or opposition based on gender identity or ethnicity.<\/p>\n \u201cThis should be a wake-up call to lawmakers: New Yorkers want their state to take a sensible, humane approach to marijuana policy,\u201d said Landon Dais, political director of MPP of New York.<\/p>\n Dais called on New York to stop wasting resources punishing otherwise law-abiding residents for using a substance that is safer than alcohol. \u201cIt\u2019s time to take marijuana off of the criminal market, so we can create good jobs, build the economy, and fund essential services,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n These kind of polls are the first steps in proving more valid steps are worth taking to both lawmakers and big donors who might want to support state-specific campaigns. Most importantly this kind of numbers serve as a mandate from everyone who hasn\u2019t had an AARP card for 20 years that they don\u2019t want cannabis to be a crime.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, do you think New York should legalize marijuana?<\/p>\n The post Two Out of Three New Yorkers Support Legalizing Marijuana<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Favorable public support polls are often a major step towards precipitating a victory for legal cannabis. In new poll announced Monday, nearly two out of three New Yorkers surveyed said they support the legalization of marijuana for adult recreational use in their state\u00a0\u2014 especially when it comes to paying theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,80,208,81,1571,356],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21457"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21458,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21457\/revisions\/21458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Two Out of Three New Yorkers Support Legalizing Marijuana<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"