Psychographic Profile of November

Don't Bogart That Joint:
What Your Position on the Legalization of Marijuana Might Say About You

According to a recent Yahoo! News post, it’s a great time to be doing stoner comedy. Riding the wave of popularity generated by recent Hollywood hits including “Harold and Kumar,” and “Pineapple Express” and the cable show “Weeds,” the “iconic ganja kings” Cheech and Chong are reuniting in the “Hey, What’s That Smell?” tour. Does this resurgence in popularity reflect changing attitudes about legalizing pot?

Perhaps. It’s certainly true that an ever-increasing number of Americans believe it’s about time that the U.S. overturn the outlaw status of marijuana. Though still a minority, about 1/3 of adults support legalization according to a recent Gallup poll, and point to burgeoning prison populations due to marijuana-related offenses, health properties, non-existent death rates, and more as legitimate reasons to reconsider current restrictions. Meanwhile, the majority of Americans still oppose making pot so easily accessible and have their own raft of arguments—concerns about cancer risks, increased driving accidents, the devolution of society to name a few—to back their position up.

Just who are these people who are for and against decriminalizing America’s largest cash crop? We decided to fire up an investigation of our own and take a closer look at who does and who doesn't want to see current dope laws go up in smoke.

The folks who believe the prohibition of cannabis should come to an end, not surprisingly, tend to have more liberal views on social issues such as abortion and homosexuality. Sixty-seven percent of this group vs. 36% of those who want to keep magic smoke on the law enforcement’s most wanted list believe abortion is OK, and just 32% say homosexuality is always wrong compared to 68% of the other group. Supporters also tend to be more tuned into the environment—78% say too little is spent to protect it. Fewer members of this crowd are married, more are divorced and most grew up in a household where mom worked [it’s always her fault, isn’t it?]. A little over a third of potnics have NEVER attended a religious service compared to 10% of their opponents, and 44% had experienced unemployment during the past 10 years compared to just 24% of those in the other group.

On the flip side, hold-the-liners—surprise, surprise—tend to be more conservative on political, social, and religious issues. Fifty-eight percent of this group voted for Bush in the last presidential election compared to 34% of legalization supporters, and 37% condemn pre-marital sex as always wrong versus 12% of the other group. Ninety percent of this group has attended a religious service and 39% consider the Bible the literal word of God. Most members of the anti-legal pot crowd are married and grew up in a traditional nuclear family with both parents present. Interestingly, this group strongly embraces an ethnic identity (60% vs. 41% of their counterparts) and gave to charity far more frequently than folks in the free-the-pot crowd (11 times in the last year versus 6 times).

Here are some of the other discriminating characteristics that we found:

Key Discriminating Traits	Adults Over 18 Who Say Marijuana Should Be Legalized	Adults Who Say Marijuana Should NOT Be Legalized
% respondents who say that too little is spent to protect the environment	78%	56%
% respondents whose mother worked while they were growing up	73%	54%
% respondents who say it is OK to have an abortion if no more kids wanted	67%	36%
% respondents who went to live music performance in past year	59%	32%
% respondents who lived with both their mother and father when they were sixteen	59%	72%
% respondents who have a great deal of confidence in the scientific community	50%	32%
% respondents who have been unemployed in the past ten years	44%	24%
% respondents who say that ethnicity is important to their sense of self	41%	60%
% respondents who saw x-rated movie in past year	38%	17%
% respondents who are married	35%	53%
% respondents who voted for Bush in the last presidential election	34%	58%
% respondents who never attend religious services	33%	10%
% respondents who say homosexuality is always wrong	32%	68%
% respondents who are divorced	28%	14%
% respondents who believe the Bible is the literal word of God	14%	39%
% respondents who say pre-marital sex is always wrong	12%	37%
Number of times respondents gave to charity in past year	6	11

A special thank you to Alex Gamse for his thoughtful and thorough analysis.

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