Poll: 74% of North Carolina Voters Back Medical Cannabis Legalization; 63% Support Adult-Use Cannabis Reforms

A WRAL/WSOC poll released October 16 found 74% of North Carolina voters back the legalization of medical cannabis in the state, with just 15% opposed. The results mirror a September poll from Elon University which found 75% support for the reforms.

Additionally, the poll found 63% of North Carolina voters support adult-use cannabis legalization, including 52% of Republicans, 73% of Democrats, and 65% of independents.

In a statement to WRAL, Ken Alper, the president of Survey USA, which conducted the poll, noted that North Carolina voters are “much more comfortable” with cannabis law reforms in the state “than they would have been 10 or 20 years ago.”

The only demographic that didn’t support broad legalization was voters 65 and older; however, 42% of the bloc backed both medical and adult-use cannabis reforms, with 16% opposed.

In April, Gov. Josh Stein (D) called for broad cannabis reforms in the state after the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Council on Cannabis called for legalizing adult-use and medical cannabis simultaneously in an interim report. The advisory group said that setting up and regulating both markets would be easier than standing up one at a time and that a medical-only program “could fuel an already robust illicit market, without regulation to ensure consumer safety.”  

The state Legislature is led by Republicans. The state Senate has passed several bills in recent years to legalize medical cannabis, but the House has never brought the bills up for a vote.