In a new statewide survey of almost 500 registered Massachusetts voters, a majority would support a ballot question to legalize marijuana.
Voters responding to the Western New England University poll are split along familiar party lines.
Overall, Democrats favor easing restrictions on marijuana. A majority of Republican voters oppose it. But something else in the results surprised WNEU pollster Tim Vercellotti.
“Forty percent of women were opposed, compared to twenty-nine percent of men,” Vercellotti says. In the past, “there hasn’t been much of a gender difference when we looked at the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana, or medical marijuana.”
In Massachusetts, marijuana decriminalization passed in 2008; medical marijuana became legal in 2012.
The survey also found a huge generational difference when it comes to legalizing marijuana. Almost 75 percent of younger respondents overwhelmingly support it.