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More than three-quarters of Iowans want to make it easier for patients to use marijuana as medicine, and nearly half want to let Iowans use it to get high, a new Iowa Poll shows.

The poll, sponsored by the Des Moines Register and Mediacom, finds 78 percent of Iowa adults want the state to expand its fledgling medical marijuana program. Just 18 percent of Iowans oppose expansion, which could include adding medical conditions for which the medication could be used and increasing the number of shops that can sell it. Four percent aren't sure.

The poll also shows a striking increase in support for legalizing recreational marijuana. For the first time since the Iowa Poll began asking about the issue in 2010, Iowans are now evenly split on the question. Forty-eight percent favor legalizing recreational marijuana, and 48 percent oppose it. Four percent aren't sure.

The last time the poll asked the question, in January 2018, 39 percent supported the idea and 58 percent opposed it.

The new poll comes as Iowa legislators consider loosening restrictions on Iowa’s medical marijuana program. The program launched in December with one manufacturer and five dispensaries. The shops sell creams, oils and capsules containing marijuana extracts that have low levels of THC, the chemical that makes recreational pot users high. About 1,200 Iowa patients have been certified to purchase such products.

An Iowa senator also plans to introduce a bill to legalize recreational marijuana, though he doubts it will gain any traction this year.

The poll of 803 Iowa adults was conducted by Selzer & Co. and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. It was conducted Feb. 10-13.

Younger people most supportive

Young Iowa adults are especially likely to support loosening marijuana restrictions, the Iowa Poll shows.

Among those younger than 35 years old, 88 percent want Iowa to expand access to medical marijuana and 70 percent want to legalize recreational marijuana. Among those age 35 through 54, 82 percent favor more access to medical marijuana and 47 percent favor legalizing recreational marijuana. Among those 55 or older, 67 percent want to expand the medical marijuana program and 32 percent want to legalize recreational marijuana.

Iowa Poll participant Helen Mattson, 84, of Boone, thinks Iowans should be allowed to try marijuana products for a wide range of ailments. Under current law, Iowans can participate in the program only if doctors certify they have one of a specific set of medical problems, such as seizures, Crohn’s disease, AIDS or “untreatable pain.”

Mattson, a retired telephone operator, said she’s never tried marijuana. “But I suppose if I got in enough pain, I might,” she said.

She added that she would have no objection to legalizing marijuana for recreation, as long as safeguards were in place to prevent traffic accidents and other problems. “I just don’t care what other people do,” she said. “I don’t plan on using it, but someone else might.”

Poll participant Julie Kruse, 54, of Dexter favors expanding Iowa’s medical marijuana program. She has a friend who wants to try the new medications for chronic pain, but doesn’t quite fit the program’s criteria. That doesn’t seem fair, she said.

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However, Kruse said she would not favor allowing recreational use of marijuana, as 10 other states have done.

“I don’t want Iowa to become like Colorado,” she said. Kruse, who is an elementary school principal, added that she doesn’t see the point of legalizing another drug that could be abused. “I’d have concerns about parents’ ability to parent their children if they’re under the influence,” she said.

Poll participant Corey Ramsey, 43, of Eldridge opposes expanding the medical marijuana program and legalizing recreational pot. He sees medical-marijuana programs as an effort to normalize the drug, so people eventually support allowing it for all uses. That’s what happened in places like California and Colorado, he said.

Ramsey, who works for an area education agency, said supporters falsely paint marijuana as benign. “There is no question that it leads to drugs that are even more addictive and bad for you,” he said. However, he worries it will become legal in Iowa and across the nation eventually.

In 2013, just 29 percent of Iowa adults said they favored legalizing the drug for recreational purposes, and 68 percent opposed it. Support changed little the next year, then gained ground over the next three years, reaching 39 percent in February 2017. After holding steady in January 2018, support jumped 9 percentage points in the past year, Iowa Polls show.

The new Iowa Poll is the first to ask about medical marijuana since the state launched its limited program in December 2018. The poll finds support across the political spectrum for expanding the program by adding more dispensaries and letting patients use the medications for more medical conditions. Such an expansion is supported by 86 percent of Iowa Democrats, 82 percent of political independents and 68 percent of Republicans, the poll finds.

Lawmakers considering changes

On Feb. 18, an Iowa Senate subcommittee approved a bill that would let health care providers approve use of marijuana products for any condition for which they determined it could be “medically beneficial.” If it becomes law, it also would let nurse practitioners and physicians certify patients for the program. Only physicians may do so now.

The state’s sole medical marijuana manufacturer, MedPharm, has been lobbying legislators to pass such an expansion and to lift the 3 percent cap on how much THC medications may contain. MedPharm, which will be joined this summer by a Cedar Rapids medical-manufacturing company, contends current limits could make Iowa’s medical marijuana program unsustainable.

“Right now, it’s not doing everything it could — not only for the patients who are using the program, but for those who are boxed out,” MedPharm General Manager Lucas Nelson said in an interview.

Nelson said the Iowa Poll results reflect how attitudes are shifting after Iowans hear about patients finding relief from marijuana products. He said such stories made Iowa’s medical marijuana program possible in the first place and should help efforts to expand it. He said his company is not pushing for legalized recreational marijuana.

Sen. Joe Bolkcom, an Iowa City Democrat, supports an expansion of the medical marijuana program and plans to introduce a bill to legalize recreational marijuana and regulate it like alcohol. Bolkcom acknowledged in an interview that such a move is unlikely in Iowa soon. But he expects it to happen eventually, as Iowans hear how smoothly marijuana legalization is going in other states.

“We’re up to 10 states where people get up every day, go to work, get on with their lives — and the world hasn’t ended,” he said.

The Iowa Senate last year passed a bill to expand the medical marijuana program, but the proposal died in the Iowa House. House Speaker Linda Upmeyer’s spokesman said recently that she continues to doubt the need for legislators to loosen restrictions on which Iowans can purchase the medications. She would prefer that any such moves come from a board of physicians that was appointed last year to consider proposals.

Upmeyer did not respond to a request for an interview to discuss the Iowa Poll’s findings on support for an expansion of the medical marijuana program.

About this poll

The Iowa Poll, conducted February 10-13 for The Des Moines Register and Mediacom by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, is based on telephone interviews with 803 Iowans ages 18 or older. Interviewers with Quantel Research contacted households with randomly selected landline and cell phone numbers supplied by Survey Sampling International. Interviews were administered in English. Responses were adjusted by age, sex, and congressional district to reflect the general population based on recent census data.

Questions based on the sample of 803 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 true population value 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.

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