[media-credit id=2238 align=”alignright” width=”231″][/media-credit]The Quinnipiac Polling Institute gave a survey to voters nationwide asking them to give their thoughts on how marijuana should be handled in the United States.

The polling institute received a general consensus of the voters’ opinions on federal marijuana laws and have released an online document addressing the results of their survey on Jan. 11 on the official Quinnipiac website.

A majority of voters said that federal pot laws should not be enforced, in a three to one ratio. Many voters support legal marijuana use with a vote of 58-36 percent, including 79-17 percent of voters who were between the ages of 18 and 34 years old.

Marijuana is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant which is considered to be an illegal drug by the federal government.

“Every party, gender, education, age and racial group supports legalization of marijuana except Republicans, who are opposed 62 – 33 percent, and voters over 65 years old, who are opposed 50 – 41 percent,” according to the statement.

A separate survey was taken by students at Quinnipiac concerning their own views on marijuana laws. Seventy-one students said they would support the legalization of marijuana on a federal level, while 21 students said they would only accept the legalization if marijuana was solely used for medical purposes.

Junior health science major Tara Murray thinks that legalizing marijuana for medical purposes would be a benefit throughout the nation.

“I believe that it should be legal just for medical uses because I know that there’s a lot of benefits to it for some people like cancer patients, so I think it’s good for the medical aspects of it,” Murray said.

Similar results occurred when students were asked if they would support the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in Connecticut. Seventy-five students say they would support it and 25 students would go against it.

Sophomore biology major Jake Vogeo said that he sees a benefit in people using marijuana for medical purposes.

“I believe that [marijuana is] already being used a good amount illegally. There may be a huge jump at first in the usage, but it wouldn’t be any different from the usage that we see now,” Vogeo said.

Participants of the Polling Institute’s survey ended up opposing the enforcement of federal marijuana laws in states that have legalized medical or recreational marijuana, with an outcome of 70-23 percent.