Tony Leys

tleys@dmreg.com

An increasingly large majority of Iowans from all walks of life favor allowing people to use marijuana for medical purposes, but relatively few Iowans want the drug legalized for recreation, a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows.

Eighty percent of Iowa adults now want marijuana legalized for medical purposes, the poll shows. That total is dramatically higher than the 58 percent who favored the idea in a 2013 Iowa Poll, and a bit more than the 78 percent who favored it in a 2016 Iowa Poll.

The new poll shows just 39 percent of Iowans want marijuana legalized for recreational purposes. Although still a minority, that figure represents an increase from the 29 percent who favored such a change in the 2013 Iowa Poll.

Legalized medical marijuana has support from strong majorities of all age groups and political parties, the new poll shows. Support ranges from 88 percent of young adults to 67 percent of senior citizens. The idea is backed by 66 percent of Republicans, 87 percent of Democrats and 82 percent of political independents.

It also is backed by at least three out of four Iowans from all income groups and those who live in any of Iowa’s four congressional districts. Protestants and Catholics favor the concept in about the same proportions (76 and 79 percent, respectively), while 91 percent of those claiming no religious affiliation support medical marijuana. Although those living in both rural and urban settings strongly back the initiative, rural residents (73 percent) are a bit less likely to favor it than those in the city (82 percent).

The new poll comes as Iowa legislators begin wrestling with whether to maintain or expand the state’s limited medical marijuana program. Under a state law set to expire this summer, patients with epilepsy may possess a marijuana oil that contains little of the chemical THC, which makes recreational pot smokers high. When the law was passed, supporters said it would help ill Iowans, including children, gain access to a drug many believe reduces seizures. But critics say the law is practically useless, because it doesn’t allow for distribution of the medication, and because it severely limits who is eligible.

Iowa Poll participant Bonnie Slinker of Grimes is one of many Iowans who favor allowing medical uses of marijuana, but not recreational uses.

Slinker, 74, said she has come to believe some marijuana products relieve symptoms of some ailments, including epilepsy.

“I think it really does work when nothing else seems to,” she said. She contends doctors, not lawmakers, should decide which patients could benefit.

Slinker, who is a retiree and a political independent, doesn’t want to see recreational use of marijuana legalized. She used to live in California, where she knew several regular users of marijuana.

“The ones who smoked it seemed to be lackadaisical in their thinking, and a lot of them lacked a work ethic,” she said. She added that society has enough problems with other drugs without legalizing recreational marijuana.

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Poll participant Jessica Young, 40, of Waterloo would favor legalizing marijuana for all uses. Young, a Democrat who owns a bicycle shop, said she doesn’t use the drug, but she doesn’t want police resources being wasted in cracking down on it. Too often, marijuana laws are used to imprison racial minorities on long sentences, she added.

Young said the public has seen many stories of patients being helped by marijuana products. She thinks Iowa should expand its current program, which makes no provision for legal production or distribution of the oil.

“That’s really the same as not allowing its use,” she said.

Ronald Mason, 54, of Knoxville opposes making marijuana legal for any purpose. Mason, a self-employed Democrat, believes the drug might legitimately help some people with medical problems. But he doubts it could be limited to them.

"It would be all right if they could show it was being used by the people who are supposed to be getting it and it’s not being sold,” he said.

However, Mason sees that public opinion is shifting toward allowing marijuana use, at least for medical purposes. He expects legalization efforts to continue gaining strength.

Selzer & Co. polled 802 Iowans Feb. 6-9. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Twenty-eight states, not including Iowa, have approved what national analysts consider “comprehensive” medical-marijuana programs. Eight states have decided to also legalize recreational uses. The federal government continues to consider almost any use of marijuana a crime. The Obama administration did not enforce federal marijuana laws against people complying with state decisions to legalize some uses of the drug. However, the new Trump administration has not yet said how it will handle the issue.

West Des Moines resident Sally Gaer, who is a proponent of medical marijuana, said she was heartened to learn that the Iowa Poll continues to show increasing support for the idea.

“It’s not a divisive issue at all,” she said.

Gaer has often visited the Iowa Capitol to lobby for increased legalization of medicine derived from marijuana plants. Her adult daughter, Margaret, is disabled by a form of epilepsy, for which she takes a cannabis oil.

Gaer said she hopes legislators will expand the state program this year. She discounted concerns that legalizing medical uses of marijuana products would make it easier for young people to obtain it to get high.

“For anybody to say it’s a slippery slope — I just don’t buy that, because anyone who wants to use it recreationally can easily get it illegally now,” she said.

Iowa’s current medical marijuana law, passed in 2014, is set to expire this summer. Before the program started, its state administrator said up to 30,000 Iowans with epilepsy might qualify. However, just 132 patients have obtained the cards, state records show.

Iowa legislators have filed at least three bills this year dealing with medical marijuana. A leading Republican senator, Brad Zaun, said he plans to file his own version soon.

“We have to do something on this issue,” said the Urbandale senator, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Zaun said in an interview that his bill would expand Iowa’s limited medical marijuana program. He said his proposal would add about a dozen ailments to the list of conditions for which Iowans could use marijuana products. He declined to specify which conditions would be listed along with epilepsy as qualifying illnesses. He added that his bill also would allow a couple of tightly regulated production facilities in Iowa to make medical-marijuana products.

Zaun expressed confidence that legislators would have a serious debate about medical marijuana, though he sees no chance that they would consider legalizing recreational pot smoking.

About the poll

The Iowa Poll, conducted Feb. 6-9 for The Des Moines Register and Mediacom by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, is based on telephone interviews with 802 Iowans ages 18 or older. Interviewers with Quantel Research contacted households with randomly selected landline and cellphone numbers supplied by Survey Sampling International. Interviews were administered in English. Responses were adjusted by age and sex to reflect the general population based on recent census data.

Questions based on the sample of 802 Iowa adults have a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. This means that if this survey were repeated using the same questions and the same methodology, 19 times out of 20, the findings would not vary from the percentages shown here by more than plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Results based on smaller samples of respondents — such as by gender or age — have a larger margin of error.

Poll methodology is available here.

Republishing the copyright Iowa Poll without credit to The Des Moines Register and Mediacom is prohibited.