Politico and Harvard just dropped survey numbers on what Americans think about CBD and cannabis legalization, and new data today from the Pew Research Center backs up their findings. The results: Support for cannabis legalization continues to be overwhelming.<\/p>\n
The new data set from Politico and Harvard\u2019s T.H. Chan School of Public Health went in-depth on American\u2019s attitudes, concerns and general thought processes about the controversial plant, as recreational, medical and CBD regulations continue to evolve around the nation.<\/p>\n
The survey found slightly more than half of U.S. adults, 52%, know what CBD is. It also found that one in seven Americans, or 15%, openly admit to using CBD products, though it didn\u2019t distinguish between cannabis-derived CBD products and hemp-derived CBD products. \u00a0<\/p>\n
And for the people who actually know what CBD is, they believe that it is very safe. Only 5% of people reported thinking it\u2019s dangerous.<\/p>\n
Legalizing pot is still popular, as 62% of those surveyed in the Politico-Harvard study approved of federal legalization. 69% of those people favored only allowing state-licensed stores to sell weed. Most excitingly, one in three people now support people being able to smoke pot in public spaces in their neighborhood! About half of people said they would be OK with a dispensary opening in their neighborhood as well.<\/p>\n
This result was corroborated by a new study from Pew that was published on Thursday. The Pew data found that support for cannabis legalization was at its highest point since the organization started tracking it in 1969, and that it had continued to increase steadily over the past decade. Today, Pew found that 59% of American adults think recreational and<\/em> medical cannabis should be legal, while 32% think only medical marijuana should be legal. That means, Pew says, an \u201coverwhelming majority\u201d of U.S. adults think medical or recreational cannabis should be legal, clocking in at 91%. Only 8% wanted to keep cannabis legal in all circumstances.<\/p>\n The Pew data pointed to a partisan gap \u2014 Democrats were more likely to support legalization than Republicans \u2014 but with such a huge buy-in from people across the political spectrum, the issue of cannabis legalization is officially bipartisan.<\/p>\n Things got a bit more unique with questions in the Politico-Harvard study about the FDA, which hinted that the public might have some areas where they want a bit more governmental restraint. 51% of those surveyed believe that CBD products \u201cshould be allowed to be sold to the public only if they have been shown to be safe by the FDA, like prescription drugs.\u201d 43% believed CBD should be regulated like a supplement.<\/p>\n One of the folks with his hand in both the cannabis and CBD industries is famed San Francisco breeder and grower Mario \u201cMr. Sherbinski\u201d Guzman.\u00a0Sherbinski\u00a0took a moment to chat with Cannabis Now on the new data.<\/p>\n \u201cAmericans are hungry for medicine that they know is safe and they feel comfortable with as they look for alternatives to what the healthcare industry is currently providing them and get more educated on the dangers of prescription drugs,\u201d Sherbinksi said of the one in seven Americans now admitting to personal CBD use. \u201cCBD is emerging as something that works, is safe and is available.\u201d<\/p>\n Sherbinski thinks people in the industry have done a great job normalizing CBD, which is reflected by the high current access levels. He said that he believes the American public will continue to become more accustomed to recreational cannabis, especially when it comes to high-CBD strains that are great medicine but are still technically federally illegal.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just about education,\u201d Sherbinski said. \u201cPeople are becoming educated about CBD, but as they move into the needs of all Americans, THC is going to increasingly be a part of the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n Sherbinski pointed to the\u00a0entourage effect<\/a>\u00a0as a big tool in explaining the need for wider cannabinoid reform to people already accepting of cannabidiol.<\/p>\n Sherbinski\u2019s career has paralleled the major changes in public opinion around legalization. In 2006, only 36% of people supported cannabis legalization and the number would only climb by four percentage points by the end of the decade. We asked Sherbinski if he ever thought he\u2019d see the numbers hit the 62% majority support legalizing marijuana has gained.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know not really, I figured it would move a lot slower just seeing the challenges we faced over the last 20 years,\u201d he replied. \u201cBut I think through education and the work of people in the cannabis industry\u2026 I mean when I started there was just one state.\u201d<\/p>\n Project CBD<\/a>\u00a0founder Martin A. Lee also weighed in on the Politico-Harvard study. Lee told Cannabis Now he wasn\u2019t too surprised by the number of people claiming to use CBD.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got all these people saying they use CBD, one out of seven, that\u2019s a figure I\u2019ve heard before,\u201d Lee said. \u201cI believe it tends to correspond or validate consumer reports. So that didn\u2019t surprise me because I heard that figure. But what strikes me here is not so many people either tried it or used it, and who knows if the number includes the full scope since some people might be squeamish about talking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Lee says the cat is out of the bag on the FDA attempting to regulate CBD as a pharmaceutical. He says this leaves two options for CBD, \u201cneither of which are good.\u201d<\/p>\n The first option, Lee says, is that CBD will face heavy regulations that will raise the barrier of entry. The second option is treating it like a supplement, \u201cwhich is basically not regulated,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cI would think there are other options, like really regulating well for safety, but easy access might be an option too \u00a0\u2014 but these questions weren\u2019t part of Politico and Harvard\u2019s framework,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThe fact that people want to buy it like vitamins or dietary supplements, it definitely should be available like that. It\u2019s just the whole supplement space should be regulated at least as stringently as cannabis is being regulated in licensed markets like California.\u201d<\/p>\n Lee next spoke on the overall acceptance of CBD\u2019s safety by the public, with only 5% of people who know what it is thinking it\u2019s dangerous.<\/p>\n \u201cBasically that\u2019s correct,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThe FDA is desperately searching for harm. They\u2019re trying to fabricate harm to the liver when there is no study that shows that accounting for the presence of really powerful drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n Lee said while CBD isn\u2019t harmful,\u00a0the quality of the products can be less than excellent<\/a>, and it might be hard to see any harm right away.<\/p>\n The\u00a0National Cannabis Industry Association<\/a>\u00a0called the new data on public opinion just further evidence to add to the mountain of it showing Americans are ready for a deeper cannabis policy debate.<\/p>\n \u201cThis poll reiterates that Americans are ready to end prohibition and are becoming steadily more educated on the issues,\u201d NCIA Media Relations Director Morgan Fox told Cannabis Now. \u201cThe fact that we are starting to focus more on how cannabinoids should be regulated rather than if they should be is readily apparent from these responses.\u201d<\/p>\n NORML\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0leadership pointed to the poll as evidence that in a time of major political unrest in America, fixing bad pot laws is still bipartisan.<\/p>\n \u201cAt a time when the political divides is larger than ever, the issue of marijuana legalization is one of the few policy issues upon which most Americans agree,\u201d NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri told Cannabis Now. \u201cWith eleven states now having legalized the adult use of cannabis, citizens of all ages and ideologies are seeing the benefits of regulation and rejecting the failed policy of marijuana prohibition. We expect to see public support to continue to grow in 2020 as more and more states implement sensible cannabis regulatory policies.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, when do you think the government will listen to the will of the people?<\/p>\n The post New Polls Show \u2018Overwhelming\u2019 Support for Legal Cannabis in America<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Politico and Harvard just dropped survey numbers on what Americans think about CBD and cannabis legalization, and new data today from the Pew Research Center backs up their findings. The results: Support for cannabis legalization continues to be overwhelming. The new data set from Politico and Harvard\u2019s T.H. Chan SchoolContinue 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":[50,136,4350,687,65,1419,81,5814,1571,5026,1518],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39501"}],"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=39501"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39502,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39501\/revisions\/39502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: New Polls Show \u2018Overwhelming\u2019 Support for Legal Cannabis in America<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"