A massive majority of Australians support the legalisation of Medicinal
Marijuana - More than nine out of every 10 Australians (91%) believe the use of marijuana
for medicinal purposes should be made legal, according to a special Roy Morgan telephone
survey conducted over the three nights of October 20-22, 2015 with 644 Australians aged 14+.
Only 7% are against legalisation and 2% can’t say.
Although Roy Morgan Research has been asking Australians for many years whether they
believe the smoking of marijuana should be legalised, this is the first time we have asked
specifically about the medicinal use of marijuana.
The landslide result comes from widespread support for the legalisation of medicinal marijuana
among men and women, different age groups, states of residence and federal voting intention.
Analysis by age and gender - were asked the question, ‘in your opinion should the use of
marijuana for medicinal purposes be made legal or remain illegal?’
A staggering 92% of women and 90% of men responded that yes, it should be made legal.
The strongest support for legalisation came from the 50-plus age group: 94% of Australians
aged 50-64 and 94% of those aged 65 and older believe medicinal marijuana should be
legalised. Least likely to support the idea is the 14-24 year-old age bracket, but even so, an
overwhelming majority (85%) are in favour.
Analysis by state of residence - Of all the states, Western Australia shows the highest rate of
support (97%) for legalising the use of medicinal marijuana, although it should be noted that
this is drawn from a smaller sample than the more heavily populated states, NSW and Victoria
(92% respectively). Meanwhile, 89% of both South Australians and Queenslanders are in
favour of legalisation