Almost three-quarters (72%) of Brazilians say they are against the legalization of marijuana for general use, including recreational use. There seems to be a significant change in comparison to another Datafolha survey, from 2018, when 66% declared that smoking marijuana should remain prohibited.
This time, the institute interviewed 2,016 people over the age of 16, on September 12th and 13th, in 139 municipalities across Brazil. The margin of error is two percentage points, plus or minus. The wording of the questions is different, which makes direct comparison difficult to conclude, with certainty, if the portion of the population refractory to legalization has increased.
"Smoking", after all, could be interpreted as decriminalization only of possession and not of the sale of cannabis. The legalization of the use of marijuana as medicine, moreover, has broad support from those interviewed: 76% are in favor, and 22% are against it. The survey also includes 1% who are indifferent and 2% who have no opinion (the sum of percentages exceeds one hundred, in some cases, due to rounding).
A mere 1% of the population sampled by Datafolha claims to be currently using some cannabis-based medication, and 2% have already done so at some point in their lives. In other words, 97% have never used preparations with cannabidiol (CBD), tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and other components of the psychoactive plant, which have been prescribed for conditions such as certain types of epilepsy.
Translated by Cassy Dias