The Impact of Empirical Research on Public Opinion Regarding Marijuana-Related Policies

Abstract

This study examined whether empirical research on the criminogenic effects of marijuana use differentially influenced public opinion on marijuana-related policy issues. We utilized an experimental priming survey sent to head of households in South Carolina with an associated email address. Qualtrics software was used to distribute the survey. After deleting non-conforming cases, the final sample was 1,637. The randomized treatment conditions displayed (1) empirical research finding that marijuana use increases crime, (2) empirical research finding that marijuana use decreases crime, and (3) empirical research finding that marijuana use increases crime in some studies and decreases crime in other studies. Results indicated that our treatment conditions had some impact on public opinion. The overall responses to the survey suggested that the majority of South Carolina respondents have opinions that favor relaxation of penalties associated with personal use of marijuana and opinions that favor the legalization of personal use marijuana.

Keywords: Marijuana decriminalization, public opinion, South Carolina, influence of empirical research, marijuana legalization, crime rate, public perception of crime, priming survey, public perception of marijuana, marijuana and crime, criminal justice research, research impacts, criminogenic effects