Attitudes in 2020 Towards Medical and Recreational Marijuana in Prohibitionist Nebraska

• Author: Patrick Habecker,Rick A. Bevins
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00220426221087913
• Published date: 01 January 2023
• Date: 01 January 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/00220426221087913

Journal of Drug Issues

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DOI: 10.1177/00220426221087913

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Article

Attitudes in 2020 Towards Medical

and Recreational Marijuana in

Prohibitionist Nebraska

Patrick Habecker1 and Rick A. Bevins1

Abstract

Despite considerable change in the legal status of marijuana in the United States in the 21st

century, the state of Nebraska has become an outlier in maintaining a complete prohibition on

the substance. We estimate overall public support for medical and recreational marijuana in the

state of Nebraska. Our data comes from the 2020 Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey,

an address-based sample of Nebraskan adults. We asked a question from the Pew Research

Center if participants support legal marijuana for medical AND recreational use, medical use

only, or if they think it should not be legal. We estimate that 83.18% of Nebraskans support

medical marijuana legalization. There is less consistent support for legal recreational use than

medical use alone. There are also associations between support preferences and age, political

party, gender, and the amount of stigma a participant reports in their community towards

people that use various substances.

Keywords

legal marijuana, Nebraska, public opinion, stigma

Introduction

Nebraska remains one of the few states to maintain a complete prohibition on medical and recre-

ational marijuana. As of April 2021, 18 states (AK, AZ, CA, CO, IL, MA, MD, ME, MI, MT, NJ,

NM, NV, NY, OR, VA, VT, and WA) and the District of Columbia have approved legal recre-

ational and medical use of marijuana. An additional 18 states legalized medical use of marijuana,

but continue to prohibit recreational use. Of the remaining 15 states, 12 allow for some products

derived from marijuana but with greatly reduced or no purported psychoactive properties. This

leaves Idaho, Kansas and Nebraska as the only remaining three states with complete prohibition

(UNODC 2021).

The changing legal landscape for marijuana in the United States reflects large changes in

public opinion about the substance itself. Gallup reported in 2020 that 68% of Americans think

marijuana should be legal, a vast increase over the 12% that supported it when Gallup first asked

the question in 1969 (Brenan 2020). The General Social Survey (GSS) reported that 61% of

Americans supported legal marijuana in 2018 and more than 50% of Americans have supported

legal marijuana since 2014 (General Social Survey 2020). Further, the majority of states that

1University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE, USA

Corresponding Author:

Patrick Habecker, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1400 R Street, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA.

Email: phabecker2@unl.edu

1087913

JODXXX10.1177/00220426221087913Journal of Drug IssuesHabecker and Bevins

research-article2022

2023, Vol. 53(1) 79–95

80 Journal of Drug Issues 53(1)

have legalized recreational marijuana have seen ballot measures and direct public vote cam-

paigns push the legalization change (Beltz, Mosher, & Schwartz 2020). The Nebraska Legislature

continues to oppose the passage of any medical laws, paving the way for a ballot initiative for

medical marijuana and likely a future recreational initiative (Schulte 2021). In this paper, we

examine public support for recreational and medical marijuana among Nebraskan adults with

specific attention to intrastate, political, and stigma differences.

Nebraska first prohibited marijuana for recreational use in 1927 with HR74 (44th Session

1927). This law made it illegal to import, possess, or cultivate marijuana, but provided exceptions

for medical and pharmaceutical use. Nebraska was one of several states in the west and south-

west to prohibit marijuana before the federal prohibition in 1937. The first states were California

and Utah in 1915, followed by Colorado in 1917, Texas in 1919, Iowa in 1921, and then New

Mexico, Arkansas, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington in 1923. In 1927, Idaho, Kansas, Montana,

and Nebraska all passed some form of prohibition (Davenport-Hines 2002:240). It is no accident

that many of these states were those with higher numbers of migrant workers from Mexico, and

that support for marijuana prohibition was often built on racist panics about the threat of Mexican

immigrants (Brecher 1972; Davenport-Hines 2002; Musto 1999). Indeed, changing attitudes

towards Mexicans at this time were reflected quite clearly by the 1930 US Census which intro-

duced Mexican as a new racial category. Previously, the Census considered anyone from Mexico

to be White (Parker et al. 2015). Politicians from the west and plains would continue pressure the

federal government to restrict marijuana, leading to the eventual federal prohibition for recre-

ational and medical use with the passing of 1937 Marijuana Tax Act (Musto 1999). Although a

revenue act, the 1937 Tax Act was de facto prohibition as it required a tax stamp to import, pro-

duce, or sell marijuana. As the tax stamp was not granted, this act led to the end of legal sales of

marijuana in the US.

In the years since 1937, the states and the general population have slowly begun to reverse

course on their opinions of marijuana and its legality. This change has not been ubiquitous in the

United States, with some groups changing their support at higher rates than others. For example,

national data from the GSS revealed higher levels of support for legal marijuana in members of

the Democratic party than the Republican party (Denham 2019). Members of both parties are

increasingly in favor of legalization, but Democrats are changing their minds at a much faster

rate than Republicans, especially since 2004 (Denham 2019).

Another common association found in the GSS is that older individuals have lower levels of

support for legal marijuana. Schwadel and Ellison (2017) used age-period-cohort models to

assed effects from individuals getting older (age), changes over time that effect everyone (period),

or differences associated with those born in the same 5 years (cohorts). They found that on aver-

age people have less support for legalization as they get older, and there is somewhat higher

support for those born in the Baby Boomer cohorts (1945–1964). However, they found that most

of the change in attitudes towards marijuana legalization are explained as period effects, meaning

there has been a large general shift in opinion since 1990 that is separate from birth cohort and an

individual’s age (Schwadel & Ellison 2017). Other consistent findings from the GSS include that

men were more supportive of legalization than women, and, in some years, differences in support

were associated with education and region of the country (Denham 2019; Schnabel & Sevell

2017; Stringer & Maggard 2016).

National studies, such as the GSS or polling from Gallup, provide national estimates of public

opinion, but there have been no national changes in marijuana laws. The federal government

continues to classify marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance with no recognized medical

use, preventing any legal reform at the federal level. Instead, changes in legality of both medical

and recreational use have been among the states.

Spetz et al. (2019) assessed state-level characteristics associated with medical and recreational

marijuana laws passing in the US before 2010 and then after. They found that early legalization