Voters in the key early 2016 primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire want the next president to respect state marijuana laws instead of sending in the DEA to arrest people who grow, sell and use cannabis in accordance with local laws, according to a new poll released Tuesday.

Seventy-one percent of registered voters in Iowa and 73 percent of voters in New Hampshire agree that “states should be able to carry out their own marijuana laws without federal interference.” Just 13 percent of Iowans and 15 percent of New Hampshirites think that “the federal government should arrest and prosecute people who are following state marijuana laws.”

Support for respecting state marijuana laws is over 60 percent in every demographic in the poll, including Republicans, 2012 Mitt Romney voters, people older than 65 and those who identify as very conservative. Support is particularly strong among Democrats and independents.

The poll was commissioned by the nonprofit Marijuana Majority and was conducted by Public Policy Polling. (Full disclosure: The author of this article is founder and chairman of Marijuana Majority.)

Previous polling has demonstrated that there is broad national support for letting states set their own marijuana laws without federal interference. For example, a Pew survey showed that 59 percent of Americans do not want the federal government to enforce marijuana laws in states that allow legal use, and CBS News found 58 percent support for the idea that marijuana laws should be set by states instead of the federal government. And while voters in Iowa and New Hampshire have been polled about personal support for legalization and medical marijuana previously, this is the first time they’ve been surveyed on whether they think the federal government should interfere with state marijuana laws.

The new surveys include 1,500 registered voters in Iowa …read more

Source:: Weed Feed