Nearly three in four marijuana consumers living in legal states say they trust that products they purchase on the regulated market are free of harmful contaminants, according to a new poll shared exclusively with Marijuana Moment.
The survey from the cannabis telehealth platform NuggMD found that 73 percent of respondents expressed either “high” or “moderate” trust that the products they buy from licensed sources don’t contain pesticides, mold or other contaminants.
Another 18 percent said they have “low” trust with the quality controls, while 9 percent said they had no trust at all.
The results appear largely consistent with those from a separate poll NuggMD conducted last year, finding that 82 percent of cannabis consumers have low or no trust at all in marijuana purchased on the illicit market.
This latest survey on trust within the regulated market involved interviews with 474 respondents from March 6-9, with a +/-4.5 percentage point margin of error.
The findings are a positive sign for advocates and industry stakeholders, signaling that consumers are hearing the message that legalizing and regulating cannabis represents a safer alternative to buying marijuana on the illicit market where there are no quality control mechanisms, testing requirements or product recalls.
That’s not to say that all cannabis available at licensed retailers is clear of contaminants, as evidenced by various regulatory enforcement actions in legal states when such problems manifest. But the fact that regulatory practices to mitigate the threat are in place seems to be effectively helping to transition consumers away from the illicit market.
“One can read this poll with either optimism or pessimism. Knowing that consumers have trust in the integrity of a market is generally a good thing,” Andrew Graham, head of communications at NuggMD, told Marijuana Moment. “But there’s mounting evidence that suggests the regulated markets don’t uniformly provide product that’s clean, safe, and free of contaminants. I don’t think that would be tolerated in any other consumer market.”
“The root of this problem, like so many others in the cannabis sector, is federal prohibition,” he said. “The White House can’t legalize cannabis via executive order, but it can order the relevant administrative agencies to develop and issue uniform federal guidance on state-legal cannabis markets in a way that does not add new regulation, as there is too much regulation already. It doesn’t have to deschedule or reschedule to give states a playbook to follow.”
“People who use cannabis lawfully deserve the same consumer protections as everybody else,” Graham said. “This poll is yet another example of how federal prohibition is needlessly putting the health and safety of millions of Americans at risk.”
Separately, NuggMD also recently released a survey that found two out of three marijuana consumers say they’ve had to make the decision to spend less money on cannabis because of broader inflation in the economy.
Asked about their recent spending on marijuana products, about 66 percent of consumers said they’re spending less as the country continues to grapple with higher costs. Thirty-four percent of respondents said inflation isn’t affecting their cannabis spending.
The results depart from the findings of an earlier NuggMD survey that was published in November. That poll found that a majority of Americans who use marijuana said they were spending more on cannabis than they were in 2023, and many expected to spend even more in 2025.
Relatedly, another recent survey from Censuswide determined that cannabis consumers are self-reporting higher levels of stress since President Donald Trump was inaugurated compared to the overall population
A separate poll from the financial resources company Bankrate and YouGov that was published last month also found that seven in 10 American marijuana consumers plan to spend either more on cannabis or about the same amount in 2025 compared to last year—and 62 percent report using cash amid ongoing industry barriers to financial services.
Meanwhile, another NuggMD poll from January found that more than half of marijuana consumers say they drink less alcohol, or none at all, after using cannabis.
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