A majority of New York voters favor legalizing medical marijuana and recreational marijuana, according to a new poll released Monday.
Voters support legalizing medical marijuana 88 to 9 percent and support legalizing small amounts of recreational marijuana 57 to 39 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.
“Medical marijuana is a no-brainer for New York State voters, and they also would follow Colorado in legalizing marijuana for fun. But a slim plurality don’t think legalization has been good for Colorado’s reputation,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
According to the poll, 41 percent say legalizing recreational marijuana has been bad for Colorado’s image, just as 37 percent think it has been good.
The survey of 1,488 New York States voters taken from Feb. 6-10 has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
Last month Democratic Cov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the state is set to allow 20 hospitals to dispense medical marijuana.
“We will establish a program allowing up to 20 hospitals to prescribe medical marijuana, and we will monitor the program to evaluate the effectiveness and the feasibility of a medical marijuana system,” Cuomo said during his annual State of the State address.
In Monday’s poll, 41 percent said they approved of Cuomo’s handling of marijuana policy, with 31 percent disapproving and 28 percent not knowing.