Pubdate: Thu, 04 Sep 2014
Source: Tampa Bay Times (FL)
Copyright: 2014 St. Petersburg Times
Contact: http://www.sptimes.com/letters/
Website: http://www.tampabay.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419
Note: Named the St. Petersburg Times from 1884-2011.
Author: Stephen Nohlgren, Times Staff Writer
Page: 1A

MEDICAL POT NOT AN EASY VICTORY

A Poll Shows Many Voters Haven't Made Up Their Minds About Florida's Amendment

Though early polling showed overwhelming support for medical 
marijuana in Florida, a new Tampa Bay Times/Bay News 9/ UF Bob Graham 
Center poll indicates that many likely voters are still unsure about 
a constitutional amendment that would allow it.

'It's not the slam dunk that previous polls suggested," said Dr. 
Christopher McCarty, director of the UF Survey Research Center and 
director of the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and 
Business Research. 'There are still a lot of people who don't know 
about it, haven't thought about it or haven't made up their minds." 
Florida's proposed Amendment 2 - which goes to a vote Nov. 4 - would 
let people use marijuana for debilitating illnesses with a doctor's consent.

Asked a question phrased directly from the ballot, 56.7 percent of 
likely voters said they support the amendment, with 24.4 percent opposing.

That left more than one voter in six surveyed who said they had not 
thought much about the amendment one way or another.

The telephone survey of 814 registered Florida voters - all likely to 
vote in the November election - was conducted Aug. 27-31 for the 
Tampa Bay Times , Bay News 9 and News 13 of Orlando by the University 
of Florida's Bob Graham Center for Public Service and Bureau of 
Economic and Business Research. The poll, which included respondents 
using landlines and cellphones, has a margin of error of plus or 
minus 3.4 percentage points. Results were weighted by age, party 
identification and media market, thus allowing the results to mirror 
the distribution of age groups, party identification and media market 
in the Florida Voter File.

Florida requires a 60 percent majority to pass a constitutional 
amendment. Most previous polls have shown support running well above 
that. Quinnipiac reported 88 percent support in July, though the 
question in that poll inaccurately portrayed how Florida's system would work.

United for Care, the amendment sponsor, conducted a poll in June, 
reading the entire ballot summary to 900 likely voters. That poll 
showed 70 percent for the amendment and 28 percent against.

Those and other polls gave people two choices - for or against.

The Times/Bay News 9/UF Bob Graham Center poll offered three options: 
For, against and 'haven't thought much about this.' That wrinkle 
revealed a larger pool of uncommitted people than previous polls had 
shown - uncertainty that grew as people considered the actual ballot language.

When voters were asked how they felt about medical marijuana in 
general, 58.3 percent favored it, 30.3 percent opposed and 8.7 
percent said they had not thought about it.

Then pollsters read from the actual ballot, asking about allowing 
'the use of marijuana ... as determined by a licensed Florida 
physician." Those in favor dipped only slightly, to 56.7 percent. But 
opposition dropped from 30 percent to 24.4 percent. On the ballot 
language, 17 percent said they had not thought about it.

'I think Floridians were aware of the debate over medical marijuana 
use," said David Colburn, interim director of the Bob Graham Center 
for Public Service. 'I'm not sure as many were as aware that it was 
on the ballot as a constitutional amendment." Identifying the 
characteristics of the uncommitted voters is difficult because the 
margin of error rises considering smaller groups within the poll.

But in general, Democrats, African-Americans and people over age 60 
appeared to be the least sure of their stance. Republicans and people 
between 25 and 59 appeared most likely to have made up their minds.

'I've read enough stories about cancer treatment and all the things 
they're going through ... how having the marijuana settles their 
stomachs and they can gain weight," said Fort Myers resident Douglas 
Dea, 47, an independent who supports Amendment 2. 'Denying them would 
be like kicking a man when he's down." Cheryl Chipoco, a Republican 
from Palm Beach Gardens, strongly opposes the amendment.

'It displays the wrong image of doing drugs to teenagers," Chipoco, 53, said.

Though the amendment requires the state to set up regulations 
regarding exactly how marijuana will be dispensed, 'there's no way to 
control it," Chipoco said. 'You're going to have teenagers and 
middle-schoolers getting marijuana on the streets, tainted with much 
higher THC than in the '60s and '70s." The amendment had more 
supporters than opponents in all subcategories of voters. Democrats 
were more likely than Republicans to favor the amendment. People 
under 60 like it better than people over 60.

The strongest support came among voters aged 25 to 59, which is also 
the age group mostly like to register for medical marijuana in states 
that keep statistics.

About 35 percent of those surveyed were identified as Republicans, 30 
percent as Democrats and nearly 26 percent as independents. While 
Florida has more registered Democrats than Republicans, Republicans 
tend to have considerably higher turnout in off-year elections.

Times staff writers Weston Phippen and Linda Qiu contributed to this report.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom