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Quinnipiac produces another sky-high poll on Floridians supporting medical pot

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With 58 percent support, Floridians proved at the polls in 2014 that they supported medical marijuana.

Unfortunately, the magic number was 60 percent, which is why the issue is probably going to be back on the ballot in 2016.

A new poll by Quinnipiac University shows huge support for a pot proposal, with 84 percent of surveyed registered voters in Florida saying they support legalization of medical marijuana and just 14 percent saying they were opposed. Also, 52 percent said they support full legalization of marijuana and 44 percent opposed.

But it needs to be noted right here and now that similar polls done by Quinnipiac in 2014 also showed such stratospheric numbers that never came to be.

A poll conducted on May 5, 2014, by Quinnipiac showed 88 percent of registered voters then showing their approval.

But that poll, like the current one, does not contain the same language as written in the state’s proposed constitutional amendment. Other polling companies did so in 2014, and those surveys never showed that such high support as Quinnipiac’s.

Proposals for a medical marijuana bill that are floating in the current Florida Legislature aren’t getting much traction, which is why the same folks behind Amendment Two last year — United for Care — are working on collecting signatures for a slightly revised medical pot constitutional amendment in 2016.

The Quinnipiac poll was taken March 17-28 of 1,087 Florida voters, with a 3 + or – percent margin of error.

Mitch Perry has been a reporter with Extensive Enterprises since November of 2014. Previously, he served as five years as the political editor of the alternative newsweekly Creative Loafing. He also was the assistant news director with WMNF 88.5 FM in Tampa from 2000-2009, and currently hosts MidPoint, a weekly talk show, on WMNF on Thursday afternoons. He began his reporting career at KPFA radio in Berkeley. He's a San Francisco native who has now lived in Tampa for 15 years and can be reached at [email protected].

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