Nearly 70 percent of Texas voters support legalizing weed

Attitudes towards legalizing recreational cannabis appear to vary by race: according to the study’s findings, ” 73 percent of Latino, 66 percent of Black and 62 percent of white Texans support this legislation,” referring to proposed recreational weed legalization laws. Hobby School researchers also found that 82 percent of Texans “support legislation that would make the use of marijuana legal for a wide range of medical purposes with a prescription, with 56 percent strongly in support of medical marijuana.”   

Texas also appears to be in favor of reducing criminal penalties for marijuana use and possession. “81 percent of Texans support legislation that would make the penalty for the possession of small amounts of marijuana a citation (similar to a traffic ticket), with 49 percent strongly in support of the decriminalization of marijuana,” researchers reported.     

Texans seem to think that legalizing weed would be a boon for the state: according to researchers, “66 percent of Texans believe that the legalization of marijuana would be good for state and local government revenue, compared to 16 percent who believe it would be bad and 18 percent of the position that the legalization of marijuana in Texas would not have an effect on state and local government revenue.”  

The Hobby School’s poll was conducted through an online survey of Texans older than 18 between Jan. 9 and Jan. 19. The 1,200 respondents were matched to reflect the gender, age, race/ethnicity, and education levels of the adult Texan population, according to researchers.