Voters in New Mexico strongly support legalizing the adult use of cannabis, according to a poll by the Albuquerque Journal, which found 61 percent would support a legalization proposal with 34 percent opposed.
The survey revealed strong generational differences in voters’ opinions on the topic, with 82 percent of respondents aged 18 to 34-years-old indicating they would support such a proposal; while less than half of voters — 45 percent — aged 65 and older said they would back a legalization measure. Eighty-one percent of independent voters supported legalization, compared to 70 percent of Democrats and 40 percent of Republicans.
Last February, the state legislature voted down a joint resolution that would have put a recreational legalization question on the November ballot.
Brian Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling Inc., who conducted the poll on behalf of the newspaper, suggested that if the question were put to voters in the state today it would pass.
“The new generation that is getting onto the voter rolls are more likely to support, so it’s only logical that support levels have been rising,” he said in the report.
The results are identical to a poll from the same group in January, with both indicating rising support from 2014, when pollsters found 50 percent opposed to legalization in the state and 44 percent approval.