Voters In Kansas And Utah Back Marijuana Legalization, New Polls Show, Demonstrating Issue’s Popularity In Red States

New polls from two deeply conservative states—Kansas and Utah—show majority voter support for adult-use marijuana legalization.

As the election quickly approaches, there’s been sizable attention paid to voters’ preferences on cannabis reform, with both major party presidential candidates backing an end to prohibition for the first time in U.S. history. And these latest surveys seem to speak to the growing bipartisanship behind the push for legalization.

In Kansas—where lawmakers recently convened for a special committee hearing to discuss the path forward for medical cannabis legislation in the state—the survey from the Midwest Newsroom and Emerson College Polling found that 56 percent of voters support broadly legalizing cannabis for recreational use, and 72 percent are in favor of allowing access to medical marijuana.

While Kansas is one of few states without a medical cannabis program in place, a top state regulator recently advised legislators that it would be “easier to implement” recreational legalization first.

The legislature’s Special Committee on Medical Marijuana is set to hold a second hearing on the issue, with a plan to start considering potential legislation to advance in the 2025 session.

Kansas lawmakers have made several previous attempts to legalize medical marijuana without success. The House did pass a medical cannabis bill in 2021, but it stalled out in the Senate. And after numerous hearings on the issue, the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee voted to table a limited medical marijuana pilot program bill in March. An effort to revive the medical cannabis bill on the Senate floor fell short in April.

In Utah, meanwhile, a poll commissioned by the Utah Patients Coalition and conducted by Noble Predictive Insights found support for adult-use legalization at 50 percent. An additional 38 percent said they back only medical cannabis recommended by a doctor. Only 9 percent said marijuana should continue to be entirely illegal.

Utah already has a medical marijuana program in place, and lawmakers have taken steps to build upon the reform in recent years.

Utah House Minority Whip Jennifer Dailey-Provost told Fox News 13 that the polling shows voters in the state are eager to see broader reform, and that initial fears about the implementation of medical cannabis legalization “just haven’t panned out.”

If the federal government moved to deschedule cannabis, that could influence the political calculus, she said. But without such a reform, “I don’t ever see my colleagues supporting a recreational program” at the state level.

“But 10 years ago, I was skeptical we’d ever get a medical program, and here we are,” she added.

Despite being known for its political conservatism, Utah’s legislature separately passed legislation authorizing a pilot program for hospitals to administer psilocybin and MDMA as an alternative treatment option. The governor let that law take effect without his signature earlier this year.

The Kansas and Utah polls are far from anomalies, as multiple recent surveys have underscored the bipartisan appeal of legalization in states across the partisan spectrum.

For example, a majority of Florida voters, including Republicans, said in a recent poll that they support an initiative to legalize marijuana that’s on the ballot.

In the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, surveys from the past several weeks have found majorities backing reform in a series tossup districts, which advocates say should signal to lawmakers that voters are ready to see them take action on the issue.

A majority of likely voters in Arkansas are also in favor of an initiative to significantly expand the state’s medical marijuana program, according to a new poll. But a state Supreme Court decision on Monday means that, despite that support, votes on the ballot measure will not be counted.