By a slight margin, most Connecticut voters support allowing adults to legally possess marijuana for personal use, according to a poll released Monday. Most of that support came from residents between the ages of 18 and 29.
A new Quinnipiac University poll found 52 percent of people who took part in the survey support recreational use, with a stark split between age groups.
When it came to support for recreational marijuana use, 80 percent of voters between 18 and 29 years old said they were in favor.
There was less support among voters over 65 years old. Just 34 percent of respondents in that age group said they supported legal recreational use, while 61 percent opposed it.
There was broader support for legalized medical use of marijuana – at 90 percent overall. Voters of all ages overwhelmingly backed legal medical marijuana, with 99 percent of voters from 18 to 29 years old supporting it, along with 84 percent of voters over 65 years old.
"While 90 percent support the current law allowing medical marijuana, support drops to 69 percent who would want a medical marijuana dispensary in their town," the poll's director Douglas Schwartz said.
The poll found that close to half of Connecticut voters, 47 percent, had admitted to trying marijuana.
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The survey also asked about people’s attitude about marijuana, and 61 percent of voters said alcohol is more harmful to a person's health, while 16 percent said marijuana is more harmful. Eighteen percent said both are harmful.
More than half of the people who participated in the poll said that should marijuana be more widely available, alcohol would be more harmful to society, while 28 percent said marijuana would be more harmful.
Almost 60 percent of people who participated in the poll said legalizing marijuana would lead to more underage use.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the poll had found that 61 percent of voters aged 65 and older said they backed legalizing recreational marijuana use. The story has been corrected to reflect the poll's finding that 61 percent of that age group oppose it, while 34 percent support it.
