According to a new poll conducted by Emerson College, 70 percent of Vermont voters do not support the commercialization and taxation of marijuana. This poll’s importance is significant to state lawmakers as the marijuana industry has renewed its annual push to expand into the state, which allows for possession of the drug, but has no “legal” marketplace.
According to the poll, 37 percent of Vermont voters support keeping the current marijuana policy of legal possession and home grow, 18 percent wish to see the drug legal only for medicinal purposes, and 15 percent believe the drug should be illegal. Only 30 percent believe the state should move toward implementing a taxed commercial market.
“Vermont lawmakers have routinely batted down Big Pot’s attempts to expand its addiction-for-profit model and this poll finds Vermont voters overwhelmingly support their continued resistance to implement a taxed commercial market,” said Dr. Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana Action (SAM Action) and a former senior drug policy advisor to the Obama Administration. “A commercial market only serves the interest of Big Pot and its Big Tobacco, Alcohol, and Pharma investors. What’s more, tax revenues from marijuana sales have been routinely disappointing and outweighed by the societal costs resulting from increased availability and use of the drug.”