Nearly six out of ten Coloradans say that they support keeping retail marijuana production and sales legal, according to statewide polling data released by Quinnipiac University.
The figure is a five percent increase in support since voters approved the law in November 2012. A September 2014 statewide NBC News/Marist College poll previously reported that 55 percent of Coloradoans favored the law.
Men and younger voters were most likely to support legalization. Voters ages 18 to 34 overwhelmingly favored state law (86 percent to 16 percent) while 50 percent of those ages 55 and older opposed it.
Male voters supported the legalization by a margin of 63 percent to 33 percent, while women only favored the law by a margin of 53 percent to 44 percent.
The gender and age differences in support are not surprising. A just-published study in the February issue of the journal Drug Abuse and Alcohol Dependence reports that women are twice as likely as men to perceive significant risks associated with the use of cannabis. The study reported that those least likely to perceive significant harms associated with cannabis are those between the ages of 18 to 25, those who have completed high-school and/or college, and those with annual household incomes exceeding $75,000.
According to newly released figures by the Colorado Department of Revenue, retail sales of marijuana totaled just under $700 million in Colorado in 2014 – the first full year during which sales of marijuana for both medical and recreational purposes were allowed.
Great. The important lesson is despite the weaker support from older women, the percentage of support is still above %50! Take note and inhale the news Billary Clinton; legalization of cannabis is here to stay!
What I have noticed from family barbecues and other social gatherings is that older women, particularly mothers, would be MUCH more supportive of legalized marijuana if:
1) marijuana was already legal at the state and federal level and they don’t have to fear their children going to jail, criminal detention or rehab, losing a job or getting kicked out of school. (Gotta work for it mom…)
2) if more people used discreet, efficient and less smelly vaporizers, most older women would hardly notice you were consuming marijuana.
3) as more products and education become available, women can learn how marijuana or hemp seed oils and creams can be mixed with lavender or almond oil to help with child birth, menopause, pains during a woman’s period, hormonal balance, hair loss, cosmetics, skin and hair nourishment, wrinkles, sexual stimulation, and a long list of medical treatments too long to post on this blog.
Some of us may not even notice as Canadian cannabis creeps into our home products. Just last week I was telling my Congressman, Jason Isaac, “there’s cannabis in my hair! … Fair, legally traded cannabis, but as it turns out Woody ‘s Clay is made with Cannabis Sativa oil. And we’re just GIVING those jobs to the Canadians?”
What’s that? Women are twice as likely to be led around by bullshiters than are men? And here I’ve always been told women are better at communicating. I suppose that doesn’t include comprehension though…
700 million that is what is definitely going to change things, More than anything, when the legislatures see profitable growth in a product that will not raise taxes for their constituents, they will listen, negotiate, and respond positively. America is at a crossroad and we are finally going to change our direction.We will at long last win our FREEDOM! It is coming get ready my friends!
Please, let us not bicker about things off topic. This is time to focus our attention and positive energy on increasing our strength, in numbers and momentum forward. .Please, do not waste precious time. Do something positive.that will help our cause. If you can’t think of anything to do, Send NORML a check, or better yet get out your credit card and click on the Donate link at the top of this page.and give NORML a generous much deserved tax deductible donation. Thank you.
We need more studies..but so far so good for weed. Just keep it away from children and those who are predisposed to mental illness or addiction….all the research I have conducted and read upon has pointed me in this direction. As long as HEALTHY ADULTS are using weed…you won’t Sen adverse effects. If weed is ingested by mentally unstable adolescents or adults predisposed to addiction…than yes…you may have a problem
Nancy, I’m not picking on women. I’m concerned that if women are twice as likely to be fooled by Prohibitionists, this really changes the math with how I think about women. Prohibitionists aren’t the only Bull Shitters out there… Are women twice as likely to believe them too?
I have always thought it is a good idea to get more women into the government, that it would function better.
Is it a specific thing the Prohibitionists say that work on women? They always mention, “what about the children”–is it language designed to activate a defensive mothering instinct?
No, don’t cover it up! That’s exactly what the DEA wants. Women have been brainwashed more and have had less experience with actual use or being around friends that do. Gets that joint out there and let people see how nonthreatening it and the smoker actually are. Educate and demystify. Personal experience and real, not junk/hype, science. The truth will out. That’s the lesson from Colorado.
(middle-aged educated white female)
Most of the opponents to cannabis legalization could accept the plant as medicine if it would be dispensed through the pharmacies. Cannabis opponents already visit pharmacies and participate in the willing use of petroleum based chemicals killing patients under the protection of doctors and the healthcare industry. Big pharma is chemical companies profiting from prohibition and poised to benefit from its legalization. A win win situation from a business perspective if you a foreigner.
I don’t see the study saying women are twice as gullible to prohibitionist dogma but twice as cautious because of their connection with children.
I also disagree strongly with any notion that cannabis is bad for mental disorders.Most of the research is claiming problems with very rare mental conditions.Little screening is done on the people to determine if disease is already present or if other drugs are involved.You need to follow the money when negative reports spring up against a medicine after 5,000 years of human experience.In addition many individuals dealing with clinical depression find a needed lift and the ability to laugh and heal with cannabis use.These are very positive compared to the placated drugged individuals using SSRI’s that should be on a schedule 1 status.
Wounded, that’s what I’m thinking, but it clearly is written, “A just-published study in the February issue of the journal Drug Abuse and Alcohol Dependence reports that women are twice as likely as men to perceive significant risks associated with the use of cannabis.”
Pray tell, where other than a Prohibitionist would they have gotten the idea they need to protect their children from Legal Marijuana that would be further out the children’s reach than is the illegal marijuana?????
I’m not trying to be a jerk, I’d actually like some answers that make some kind of sense.
@Dave;
You sure do have a way with the ladies, dontcha? We’re making broad stereotypes here for the purpose of analyzing some constantly changing polls… Changing for legalization with our Education efforts… so I’ll include myself in this statement when I say let’s try to speak from heartfelt experience for the purpose of education… And try not to sound like douche when we make condescending, sexist comments. 🙂 We all gotta laugh or it aint funny.
I have always emphasized education as the number one tool we have to end prohibition, whether it’s our NORML directors getting in front of the camera or getting quotes in the news, or its all of us doing our job to lobby our Congressman, suit and tie (or business dress) in person, or just POLITELY educating our own family at barbecues and gatherings.
Education is interactive… We have to listen and answer questions. Staff aids and family members will ask the questions they fear or need to know most if we stop and let them. Education is a conversation, not a condescending dump on someone’s parade, less we become the agent that won’t compromise to improve our own society…
Julian, I’m pretty sure I haven’t explained myself very well. However, I still can’t see any reason why anyone in this country needs to be “educated” on how to be able to tell in the government is breaking the law or not… There have been dozens of laws written specifically to ignore women and women’s needs; and a system designed to harm their children should be one of the first things they target for being dismantled, not the last!
Like I said, education is interactive; it’s as reciprocal and continuing as love itself. The day we say we are “educated enough,” is the day we stop listening and learning alltogether.
Congress needs education. We need constant education on the status of laws so we know what to tell our Congressman. The best thing we can give our daughters to improve their quality of life, family planning and career is an education. Thst’s why I’m exited about new courses on cannabis such as Montgomery Community College in Maryland and of course, the veteran Oaksterdam University in California. Cannibis subsidized canniversities are the key to a new American Golden Age and Green Revolution.
We just have to get people to PLAY with the experience of learning about cannabis and human history, laws and science. Let them ask questions. Sometimes a staff aid will ask questions to derail you from your message, like “what is the history of cannabis again?” Then feign ignorance like, ” What year was the first law?” So play the game with them… Speak fast during what appears from facial expression to be a rhetorical question: “themarijuanastampactof1937wasruledunconstititionalin1969soprohibitionreformedintheControlledSubstanceActof1970tobuildthearchaiclawswehavetoday… (Pause for emphasis while switching gears) that incarcerate over 700,000 non-violent Texans per year, which brings me back to HR 507…”
There is an intelligent game that goes on at the lobbying education level because staff aids and Congressman with conflicting agendas know you’re pressed for time and are searching for ways to run the clock out before you get them to make a statement on their position. My advice is have fun with this game; we in the cannabis legalization community are finally in the authority over this subject. Ask them their position repeatedly and watch them squirm. I have always asserted that playing well into adulthood , an activity well complimented by cannabis consumption, is an excellent indicator of intelligence.
I just wish here in AR, I could have helped my dying twin, he had cancer, passed away 3 yrs ago,Medical sure could have made his transition easier
Here in Arkansas, when you have a loved one like my father who was very sick for a long period of time, you do what you have to do, period.