Arizona's Proposition 203, Legalizing Medical Marijuana

We conducted our survey with these questions.

Demographic Questions:
1. Male or Female?
(M/F)

2. What grade level are you?
Freshman
Sophomore
Junior
Senior

3. Are you Employed or Unemployed?
Employed
Unemployed

4. Do you take AP or Honors courses?
(Y/N)

5. Do you participate in extracurricular activities?
(Y/N)


Questions actually pertaining to Prop 203:

6. How would you vote on the legalization of marijuana for medicinal use?

• Yes
• No
• I don't know

7. How would you identify yourself?

• Catholic/Christian
• Spiritual
• Other faith
• Atheist/Agnostic

8. Have you read the guidelines of Proposition 203?

• Yes
• No

9. Do you know what conditions were proposed for medicinal marijuana use in AZ?

• Yes
• No

Question 1

Religious impact was very interesting. All the groups except for "other faith" had a majority of its members say "yes." Although Christians/Catholics had 44% of members say yes, the members were split; 29% said no and the other 27% were very reluctant. The students who were considered spiritual all voted yes and 85% of Atheists/Agnostics voted yes. Those who answered "other faith" did not really seem to have much of an opinion and half omitted answering and went with "I don't know."

It seemed that age had the biggest impact on peoples' views on marijuana. Freshmen were likely to say no (43%), but they were split, many did not have much of an opinion. Sophomores had more yes votes, but were still split on the issue. Then along came Junior year, and 70% of the new upper class men voted yes, Seniors were about the same, coming in slightly higher at 71%.

Class difficulty did not have much of a impact of opinions, both AP/Honors students and General Ed. students were more likely to vote yes (Approximately 55%).

Involvement in extracurriculars did not have much of an impact either; still both members were more likely to vote yes (Approximately 55%).

Those who knew the conditions medical marijuana would be prescribed for were more likely to vote yes (67%); those who did not know what conditions medical marijuana would be prescribed for were all over the board split among yes, no and I don't know.

Honestly I am not sure about the accuracy of this one, when I was polling it seemed like many students were lying about this question. Though it seems for both groups, it did not have much of an impact. The majority of both groups said yes, with those who "read" it at 60% and those who did not at 51%.

Gender did not seem to have much of an effect on peoples decisions, when I was polling I did notice that when people were unsure about their answer, Guys were more likely to omit and just say I don't know or I don't really have an opinion.

The main point has been answered in question 1 and the above information. Everything below this is to see how demographics affect questions 3 and 4.

Question 3

Age was the only factor that really impacted whether or not students had actually seen prop 203. Freshmen through Juniors largely had not read prop 203; however, the Seniors were more balanced out and a larger percentage of Seniors had read prop 203.

Gender did not have an impact on who read prop 203 and who did not.

Class difficulty did not have an effect on who read prop 203 and who did not.

Extracurricular activities did not have an impact on who read prop 203 and who did not.

Employment status did not have an impact on who read prop 203 and who did not.

Question 4

Age was the biggest factor in whether people knew what conditions were proposed for medicinal marijuana use. The majority of Freshmen and Sophomores did not know. The Junior's knowledge is close to 50/50. The Seniors are the only class that had the majority of its members answer yes.

Those who are employed have better knowledge of the conditions medical marijuana would be prescribed for than the unemployed; 61% of the employed answered yes while only 39% of the unemployed answered yes. (Corresponds with graph below)

Gender did not seem to have an impact on who knew the conditions for which medical marijuana would be prescribed for and who did not. Females were slightly more knowledgeable than Males though.

Class difficulty did not seem to have an impact on who knew the conditions for which medical marijuana would be prescribed for and who did not.

Extracurricular activities did not seem to have an impact on who knew the conditions for which medical marijuana would be prescribed for and who did not.

Overall Summary

A person's grade level affected their decisions and knowledge of proposition 203 the most. Younger students were more against prop 203 and knew less about it while the older students supported prop 203 and knew more about it. Religion was the second biggest factor that impacted a persons position on medical marijuana. Nothing else seemed to have a significant impact on how students supported prop 203.

When it comes to error, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be to make this perfect. I would have been so much easier to analyze the data if we had more equally polled according to demographics, e.g. polled 25 students from each class, half guys half girls, half honors or AP and half general ed, & c. Second I think giving people the option to pick "I don't know" for an answer may not have been a good idea. When people were iffy on the issue they said "I don't know" and quite a few people used it. It would have been better to give options like "Yes," "I'm not sure but I leaning towards yes," "No," and "I'm not sure but I leaning towards no." Lastly I could tell when polling people that many students did not really care too much and just took the poll because they did not want to seem rude and say no, so I do not think people were as accurate with their answers as they could have been