Majority of Americans Still Against Recreational Use

By Gary Langer
ABCNEWS Senior Polling Analyst

from ABCNEWS.com, May 29, 1997

Americans overwhelmingly favor legalizing marijuana for medical use
but if research showed the drug had no medical benefits, that support
would go up in smoke, an ABC News/Discovery News poll has found.

A big majority, 75 percent, continues to oppose decriminalizing
marijuana for recreational use, the national poll found. But medical use is
another issue: Sixty nine percent say doctors should be allowed to
prescribe the drug.

Support would be even higher 77 percent if research
demonstrated that marijuana is effective in treating some conditions, the
poll found. But if research were to find that marijuana is not an effective
treatment, then support for its medical use would plummet to just 20
percent.

Given their current information, most Americans 58 percent do
believe that marijuana has legitimate medical uses. The vast majority of
them support legalizing its medical use; so do four in 10 of those who
doubt its efficacy, apparently in deference to doctors who want to
prescribe it.

Support for Medicinal Use

Voters in Arizona and California have passed measures legalizing
medical uses of marijuana, but the federal government opposes these laws,
calling them a first step toward general decriminalization of the drug. At
the same time, the White House has committed about $1 million for a study
of the drug's medical uses by the National Academy of Sciences.

While Arizona's law restricts the use of marijuana to seriously ill
patients, most Americans don't favor that restriction. If the drug is legal
to prescribe, a majority, 52 percent, says it should be available to anyone
whose doctor thinks it could help them.

People who favor legalizing the drug for medical use are somewhat
more apt to hold this view: Nearly twothirds of them say there should be
no restriction on the kind of patient who receives medical marijuana.

Fiftythree percent of Americans call it unlikely that a
significant number of doctors would abuse legalization laws by prescribing
marijuana to people who didn't really need it. A sizable 44 percent do have
that concern, although just 26 percent call widespread abuses "very
likely."

Concern about doctors' abuse is a major point of division among
supporters and opponents of legalization. Just 35 percent of supporters
anticipate that a significant number of doctors will abuse such laws. But
among opponents, 67 percent anticipate such abuse, and most of them call it
"very likely."

Personal experience with marijuana is less of a dividing issue, at
least on the question of medical uses of the drug. Among people who've
tried marijuana, 83 percent support its medical use; but so do 63 percent
of those who've never tried it.

There's a greater division on the question of legalization for
recreational use. That's opposed by majorities in both groups, but there's
a big gap: Among people who've tried marijuana, 52 percent oppose general
decriminalization; among people who have never tried it, 86 percent are
opposed.

You can get more details on the poll from Discovery News on Friday,
May 30, at 9 p.m. on the Discovery Channel. Discovery News is produced by
ABCNEWS for the Discovery Channel.

This poll was conducted by telephone May 27 among a random national
sample of 517 adults. The results have a margin of error of 4.5 percentage
points. Field work by Chilton Research Services of Radnor, Pa.

ABC News Poll, conducted May 27, 1997, released May 29
517 adult Americans, 4.5% margin of error, poll by Chilton Research,
Radnor, Pa.

Should Medical Marijuana Use Be Legalized?

Support Oppose
Legalizing medical use of
marijuana 69% 27%

...if research shows it effective 77% 18%

...if research shows it ineffective 20% 75%

Medical Restrictions

All Supporters
Americans of legalized use
Limit marijuana to:

terminally ill patients 29% 21%

serious, not fatal cases 13% 14%

any patients 52% 63%

Would Doctors Abuse the Law?

YES NO

All respondents 44% 53%

Supporters of medical use 35% 64%

Opponents of medical use 67% 28%