Marijuana Polling

In New Jersey, there has been a great deal of progress in the last few years. Several bills have been introduced in the state legislature, ranging from legalization to expungement, and the fight for freedom has never been more widely supported than now.

The Monmouth University Poll finds more than 6-in-10 New Jersey residents support legalizing marijuana and half say a current proposal to make that happen in the Garden State is a good idea. The number of people who say that legalization will help the state’s economy and lead to a decrease in other drug crimes has ticked up over the past year. Three-quarters of the public also support the opportunity for those with past possession convictions to expunge their records.

In a survey conducted earlier this month by the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJCPA), 48 percent of the 1,063 CPAs who responded said legalizing adult-use marijuana in New Jersey would help the economy, compared to 22 percent who said it would have no impact and 20 percent who said it would hurt the economy.

Gallup has been conducting surveys on the public's opinion toward marijuana since the 1960s. The pollster has found that 60% of respondents now want to see cannabis legalized nationally and this is as recent as 2016. In comparison, roughly 25% approved of legalizing marijuananationwide back in 1995.

There were 216 Chatham Borough residents who answered the Planet Civic survey questions about marijuana legislation, although some did not answer all the questions. In addition, there were 22 comments.

State Senate President Steve Sweeney said recently that legislative reform of the state’s public workers’ pension and health insurance plans will make New Jersey a more affordable place to live.

You know what else the state can do to make living here less like doing hard time on taxation island? Follow through on the promise to legalize recreational marijuana and use the additional revenue to provide some relief to taxpayers.

We realize it won’t alleviate all of New Jersey’s tax woes, but it sure could help.

While four states will soon see their opportunity to legalize cannabis for either medicinal or recreational purposes through voter approved ballot initiatives, some states do not have this option open to them. In other states, lawmakers are considering acting before the citizens do. New Jersey is one state where those with the power to change the law have significantly shifted their views on legalization recently, and top officials have announced that they expect a vote on the subject before the end of the year.

Nearly 60 percent of New Jersey adults support the legalization of marijuana, while nearly two-thirds of adults said they felt that a taxed and regulated industry would help the state, according to a Tuesday poll from Rutgers University Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling.

The poll, which surveyed 1,006 New Jersey adults between Oct. 12-19, found that 58 percent to 37 percent support legalizing marijuana for personal use. Thirty-seven percent did not support legalization.

As polls show record support for marijuana legalization, advocates say the midterm elections could mark the point of no return for a movement that has been gathering steam for years.

"The train has left the station," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., a leading marijuana reform advocate in Congress. "I see all the pieces coming together... It's the same arc we saw two generations ago with the prohibitions of alcohol."

Sixty-six percent of US adults believe that “the use of marijuana should be made legal,” according to national survey data compiled by the Gallup. The percentage is the highest ever reported by Gallup, which has been tracking Americans’ views on the subject of marijuana legalization since 1969.

Support was strongest among Millennials (78 percent), Democrats (75 percent), and Independents (71 percent). Support for legalization was prevalent among the majority of Republicans (53 percent) and those 55 or older (59 percent), groups who have historically opposed reform.