Legalized Marijuana Use OK With Two-Thirds Of MD Residents: Poll

BALTIMORE, MD — A growing majority of Maryland residents support legalized cannabis use for recreation, and a majority of Marylanders also continue to approve of how Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is doing his job, although his approval rating is down.

The findings were among those in the newest Goucher College Poll, which asked Maryland residents their views on the direction of and most important issue facing the state, satisfaction with American democracy, and their opinions of Hogan, the Maryland General Assembly, and President Joe Biden.

The Goucher College Poll surveyed 725 Maryland adults from Feb. 23 to 28, and it has a margin of sampling error of 3.6 percent.

Legalization of Recreational Marijuana

Two-thirds of Maryland residents support the legalization of recreational marijuana, and 28 percent oppose it. Support is now at its highest point since the Goucher College Poll started measuring attitudes toward legalization in October 2013.]

Some clear divisions in support along partisan lines remain, but more Republicans than not now support legalization for the first time on a Goucher College Poll:

• Among Democrats: 77 percent support / 18 percent oppose
• Among Republicans: 50 percent support / 47 percent oppose
• Among independents: 60 percent support / 34 percent oppose

Two years ago, 57 percent of residents supported legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, and 37 percent opposed it.

“The Maryland General Assembly is considering a bill to legalize the use of recreational cannabis. This most recent effort comes on the heels of four states voting to legalize recreational cannabis by ballot measure this past November and, most recently, New Jersey and Virginia passing adult-use marijuana legalization laws,” said Mileah Kromer, director of the Sarah T. Hughes Field Politics Center at Goucher College, in a news release. “We’ve consistently found that a majority of Marylanders support the legalization of recreational cannabis, but this is the first time Republican support has reached 50 percent.”

See Also: MD Residents Want COVID Vaccine, Criticize Rollout: Goucher Poll

Gov. Larry Hogan and Perceptions of Maryland

Sixty-five percent of Marylanders approve of the job Hogan is doing as governor, 25 percent disapprove, and 9 percent say they don’t know. This represents a drop from his October 2020 approval rating of 71 percent, but is on par with his approval rating from this time last year of 62 percent.

Almost half of Maryland residents (48 percent) approve of the job the Maryland General Assembly is doing, 30 disapprove, and 19 percent say they don’t know. Notably, 67 percent of Black Marylanders approve of the job the Maryland General Assembly is doing.

Sixty-two percent say Maryland is heading in the right direction, and 31 percent say Maryland is off on the wrong track. Around this time last year, fewer than half said Maryland was heading in the right direction.

A plurality (48 percent) of Marylanders identify COVID-19 as the most important issue facing the state of Maryland today. Fifteen percent say economic issues and 7 percent of Marylanders identify education as the most important.

President Joe Biden and Satisfaction With American Democracy

Biden earns strong approval ratings among Marylanders after two months in office. Sixty-two percent of residents approve of the job Biden is doing as president and 31 disapprove of it. Not surprising, Democrats (86 percent) are far more likely to approve than their Republican (17 percent) counterparts are.

In mid-February 2017, a similar point in his presidency, 29 percent of Marylanders approved of the way Donald Trump was handling his job as president of the United States and 64 percent disapproved.\Marylanders are generally unsatisfied with the state of American democracy.

• Thirty-one percent say they are satisfied.
  • Among Democrats: 40 percent
  • Among Republicans: 16 percent
  • Among Unaffiliated/independent: 30 percent
• Sixty-four percent say they are unsatisfied.
  • Among Democrats: 59 percent
  • Among Republicans: 80 percent
  • Among Unaffiliated/independent: 61 percent

Download the complete results, including methodology and question design. To view archived polls, please visit www.goucher.edu/poll.