The probable legalization of recreational marijuana before the end of the year will not sit well with tens of millions of Mexicans, a poll suggests.
Conducted by the newspaper El Financiero in July, the poll found that 58% of people were opposed to legalization. Only 38% of respondents said they were in favor.
The percentage of people opposed increased 7% compared to June last year while support for legalization decreased by 9%.
El Financiero republished its poll results on Tuesday, five days after the Senate passed a bill to legalize recreational use. The lower house of Congress is expected to approve the bill before a December 15 deadline set by the Supreme Court, which ruled last year that laws forbidding the use of marijuana are unconstitutional.
El Financiero found that different subgroups of society have different views about marijuana legalization. In six polls conducted between February 2019 and July 2020, the percentage of men who supported it was higher than women in all of them.
In the most recent poll, 43% of men said they were in favor of legalization while only 34% of women said the same.
The survey results also show that young people are more likely to support legalization than older people. Among the respondents to the most recent poll aged 18 to 39, just over half – 51% – said they agreed with legalization. Only 29% of respondents aged 40 or over said the same.
In June, the percentage of young poll respondents who supported legalization – 62% – was exactly double the percentage of older people who favored making pot legal.
Support for legalization is also much stronger among people who have completed higher levels of education. The July poll found that 61% of people who have at least completed high school believe that recreational marijuana use should be legal.
Among respondents who didn’t study past middle school, only 23% supported legalization. Support among that cohort declined 19 points between February 2019 and July 2020, while it increased 12 points in the same period among those with higher levels of education.
The July poll, which surveyed 410 adults in all 32 states, also found that support for legalization was 15 points higher among people who identify as left-wing on the political spectrum than among those who lean to the right.
Source: El Financiero (sp)
