58 per cent of respondents would support a politician “who occasionally smokes marijuana in their free time.”
People in the U.S. were recently asked if they would vote for a politician who smokes weed? According to a new poll, more than half of respondents report they would be comfortable dong so.
Conducted by YouGov, the survey was released on Jan. 26, weeks after Louisiana U.S. Senate candidate Gary Chambers released an ad smoking a blunt.
A deeper look into the statistics shows that Democrats were most likely to vote for a politician who smoked weed when compared to Republicans. Still, a significant percentage of Republicans said they would vote for a politician who smoked cannabis if they agreed on most issues.
Despite the somewhat surprising findings, it makes sense that large percentages of people in the U.S. would approve of a politician who consumes cannabis. As time passes, the plant continues to gain ground on the legalization front and, in turn, seems to be gaining approval across all demographics.
Chambers has caused a lot of commotion from his ad, earning his first large endorsement from Rep. Ted James.
“I was shocked when I saw it. Politicians don’t usually do that. He’s definitely started some real conversations,” James said.
In the ad, Chambers is seen smoking a blunt while describing the harms of criminalization.
“Black people are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana laws than white people,” he said.
“States waste $3.7 billion enforcing marijuana laws every year. Most of the people police are arresting aren’t dealers, but rather people with small amounts of pot, just like me,” he added.