Survey: 51% of Americans Consider Cannabis Smell a “Problem”

According to a PSB Research, Civilized, Burson Cohn & Wolfe, and BuzzFeed News survey, 51 percent of Americans believe the odor of cannabis in public is a “problem,” compared to 60 percent of Canadians.

The survey did find a supermajority of Americans – 84 percent – favored legalization for either medial or recreational purposes and 60 percent said they supported a taxed and regulated cannabis industry. Of the American respondents, 27 percent were active cannabis consumers.

In Canada, 57 percent of respondents said they “dislike” or “hate” the smell of cannabis in public, compared with 23 percent of Americans. Sixty percent of Canadians called the smell of cannabis in public “a real problem.”

Among Americans, 18 percent said they enjoyed the smell and another 18 percent said they didn’t like it – 41 percent said they didn’t notice or didn’t care.

One-third of current American consumers said that the smell of cannabis in public was a problem, but just 10 percent said it was a major one. Among American non-consumers, 27 percent called it a major problem while 29 percent said it was a minor problem; 28 percent said the smell was “not really a problem” when walking down the street, while 21 percent said it wasn’t “a problem at all.”

1,000 adults aged 21-or-older were interviewed for the survey in the U.S. – 471 consumed cannabis regularly. In Canada, 602 people were surveyed, including 371 consumers.