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In a country seemingly defined by bitter partisan politics, cannabis seems to be the one issue that bridges the divide.
Take Texas, for example. A new poll from the University of Texas at Tyler found that 83 percent of Texans support cannabis legalization for medical use, while 60 percent support legalization for recreational use. That’s not far off from what the nation as a whole has said in previous surveys.
Both numbers are higher than the approval rating those surveyed gave Texas Governor Greg Abbott and President Joe Biden. Less than half of those surveyed (46 percent) approve of how Abbott is doing his job, while only 39 percent approve of Biden.
But legalization earned the majority of support from people on both sides of the political divide. Ninety-one percent of Democrats and 74 percent of Republicans believe cannabis should be legal in their state for medical use. For recreational use, 76 percent of Democrats and 42 percent of Republicans said they support legalization.
RELATED: Austin Passes Cannabis Decriminalization Bill, a First For Texas
Other findings from the poll
The findings in the poll seemed to undermine the narrative that people in red states don’t want marijuana legalization. Legalization won stronger support than the approval ratings for all the politicians in the survey, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The legalization support numbers were also higher than the percentage who said they had a somewhat favorable or very favorable view of the state’s two U.S. senators, Ted Cruz (42 percent) and John Cornyn (33 percent). It also ranked higher than the 37 percent who have a favorable view of Vice President Kamala Harris and the 42 percent with a favorable view of Beto O’Rourke, who is running against Abbott for Governor.
RELATED: Cannabis Is Booming in Oklahoma. Is Texas Next?
Across the board, cannabis legalization in Texas proved more popular than politicians on both sides of the political aisle. That’s an interesting bit of information for entrepreneurs and others working on legalization in Texas and other red states.
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