Sunshine State News: Florida Voters Back Medical Marijuana, Transgender Bathroom Law
By Sunshine State News // May 23, 2016
(SUNSHINE STATE NEWS) – Florida voters remain open to supporting a proposed state constitutional amendment on medical marijuana and back the idea of a law for transgender individuals using “bathrooms that correspond to their gender at birth rather than their gender identity,” a new poll shows.
Gravis Marketing released a poll over the weekend which finds Florida voters are behind Amendment 2, a measure expanding medical marijuana in the Sunshine State. More that two-thirds of those surveyed–69 percent–back the proposal while 23 percent are against it. For the amendment to pass, 60 percent of voters have to support it in the general election in November.
In 2014, another proposed amendment–which was also Amendment 2–polled well at the start of the election cycle but faded as it drew fire. It eventually failed to be adopted with 58 percent of voters backing it.
Doug Kaplan, the president of Gravis, said there is “rapid changing of the voting segments opinion on medical marijuana” which continues to impact the fight over the amendment.
“One year ago when we asked a similar question, the state constitution measure was in danger of failing, as less than 60 percent of those polled would vote for it,” Kaplan said.
“Today, it appears that this ballot initiative is fairly on it’s way of passing. It’s amazing to see how much the public sentiment has changed in the last eight years.”
Gravis also asked voters “would you say you favor or oppose laws that require transgender individuals to use bathrooms that correspond to their gender at birth rather than their gender identity.”Almost a third of those surveyed–32 percent–said they would strong favor that proposed law while 14 percent somewhat favor it. A quarter of those surveyed–25 percent–say they strong oppose that proposal while 13 percent somewhat oppose it.
The poll of 2,542 registered Florida voters was taken from May 17-May 18 and had a margin of error of +/- 2 percent.
