Majority Of GOP Voters Want To See Medical Marijuana Legal, Many Have Used Cannabis Recreationally

The sentiment among Republican voters regarding cannabis seems to be shifting, according to a new national poll.

The survey conducted by Republican pollster Fabrizio, Lee & Associates on behalf of the National Cannabis Roundtable, found that the majority of GOP voters (73%) favor the legalization of cannabis for medical purposes. At the same time, nearly half admitted to using recreational marijuana, reported Greenway Magaizne.

The majority of those surveyed (76%) also said that the federal government should not interfere in state legalization and regulation. The states should oversee cannabis legalization, not the federal government, said 58% of those surveyed.

U.S. Rep. David Joyce (R-OH) who joined the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference this week in Chicago said that states should be allowed to do what they are doing right now. Still, it is important to get the federal government out of the way and create an industry where cannabis businesses are honored and served by tax and banking systems, Joyce said.

Meanwhile, nearly three out of four GOP voters (73%) said licensed cannabis businesses should have the same rights as any other legal business. Sixty-five percent of the 1,000 surveyed self-reported Republican voters said that marijuana businesses should be allowed to access the banking system.

Other GOP politicians have shown support for cannabis banking reform as well. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) seems to be tireless in his struggle for cannabis companies to have access to banking services via the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act. Daines released a video ad in which Cary Hegreberg, CEO of the Montana Bankers Association, shared his thought on the benefits of the proposed legislation.

"Banks are really the lifeblood of virtually every community in Montana," Hegreberg said in the video. "It's going to be very difficult, unless the SAFE Banking Act passes, for marijuana-related businesses to actually set up accounts and do financial transactions in the way most of us do."

The Latest On Cannabis Banking Reform

The SAFE Banking Act, first introduced by Colorado Rep. Ed Perlmutter, is designed to set up protections for banks and credit unions so that they can offer loans, capital investment and other services to cannabis companies in states with legal markets.

The industry stakeholders and activists like CB1 Capital's founding partner and CIO Todd Harrison, who also joined Benzinga's conference on Tuesday to talk about investment risks and opportunities in the cannabis space, said that investors are waiting for the passage of federal cannabis banking reform to deploy much-needed capital and help marijuana businesses grow and thrive.

Lawmakers recently reviewed the legislation during a Senate Banking Committee meeting focused on insurance issues. In June, the Senate rejected, for the sixth time, the bipartisan marijuana banking legislation in the final version of the United States Innovation and Competition Act (a.k.a The America COMPETES Act).

GOP Voters Favor Cannabis Criminal Justice Reform

Meanwhile, respondents of the NCR-backed survey also said (69%) that they "favor" the criminal justice segment of cannabis reform. Over two-thirds of GOP voters would like to see sentence reviews for people convicted of non-violent cannabis crimes in states where recreational cannabis is now legal.

Rep. Joyce told Brady Cobb, founder and CEO of Sunburn Cannabis, at the Benzinga event that cannabis is still being treated like "fentanyl, or even worse, you know, opium," adding that "we need to change."

Photo: Courtesy of Lukas Blazek on Unsplash