BOUNTIFUL, Utah — A poll commissioned by a medical cannabis advocacy group found that a majority of Utahns would support a citizen ballot initiative legalizing recreational cannabis in the state.
The margin would be the same that voters approved medical cannabis in Utah back in 2018 — 52%. But the group that paid for the public opinion survey said it is not intending to push for recreational marijuana, even as states around us have switched to it.
"I think it’s important to know where we are as a state," said Alex Iorg, a co-founder of Wholesome Co., a medical cannabis provider and a member of the newly formed group "Keep Utah Medical."
Instead, Iorg said he would like to continue to push for modifications to Utah's medical cannabis program to make it easier for qualifying patients to access and reduce barriers that have forced people to turn to the black market or venture out of state where recreational cannabis is legal.
The survey, conduced by pollster Noble Predictive Insights earlier this month, found that 52% of Utah voters would support a citizen ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana sales. Another 38% said they would vote against it and 9% told Noble they were unsure of where they stand. (The poll was conducted earlier this month of 609 registered voters in Utah and has a margin of error of +/- 3.97%.)
It is the clearest sign yet that attitudes toward cannabis in Utah have changed dramatically since medical cannabis was legalized. Iorg, who worked on the campaign for medical cannabis in 2018, noted that opponents warned "the sky would fall."
But Iorg still does not believe the time is ripe for recreational marijuana in Utah.
"I don’t think there is that appetite quite yet. But if we don’t start looking at ways to improve our medical program, if we don’t make it easier for patients to access medical cannabis here in our state, it will happen eventually," Iorg said in an interview with FOX 13 News. "It’s happened in every state around us that’s passed a medical program."
The poll may serve as a warning to the Utah State Legislature on future cannabis legislation of what could happen. This past session, lawmakers did pass a modest expansion of the medical cannabis program. But those bills also faced fierce opposition from social conservatives who largely complained about legalizing cannabis in Utah in the first place.
In 2018, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a significant cultural and political force in the state) was a major opponent of medical cannabis. The faith has also opposed recreational cannabis votes in other states, but lost.
The Noble Predictive Insights survey found some headwinds for a recreational marijuana vote in Utah. The data shared with FOX 13 News showed that Latter-day Saint voters and conservatives were opposed to it (only self-described "Trump-first Republicans" were not as opposed) while liberals, moderates, independent and non-LDS voters were supportive of it.
"In Utah, the right is far better organized than the left," pollster Mike Noble warned in a memo on his poll. "If traditionalists believe that a campaign is underway to legalize marijuana for all uses, they may be more prepared to fight the idea – and their strategies may move these numbers."
