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Ball State’s annual Hoosier Survey gets opinions on marijuana use, abortion

Close-up of person light a marijuana joint with a lighter. (Provided Photo/CNN)

MUNCIE, Ind. (WISH) — Hoosiers’ thoughts on marijuana use and abortion haven’t changed much from year to year based on the results from the 2023 Hoosier Survey.

The Bowen Center for Public Affairs at Ball State University on Tuesday released the first of three rounds of results.

Which comes closer to your view about the use of marijuana by adults?

  • 54.2%: It should be legal for personal use.
  • 32.2%: It should be legal for medicinal use.
  • 9.8% It should not be legal.

The Bowen Center director, Chad Kinsella, says the results nearly mirror the responses to the same question in the 2022 Hoosier Survey, when 56% of respondents believed marijuana should be legal for personal use.

Kinsella said in a news release, “The findings are similar to last year’s findings in that Americans and Hoosiers have shifted dramatically on their attitudes toward marijuana. Many states have recently legalized marijuana, including neighboring states like Ohio in 2023.”

Do you think abortion should be…

  • 31.3%: Legal in most cases.
  • 27.8%: Legal in all cases
  • 27.2%: Illegal in most cases.
  • 10.3%: Illegal in all cases.

Again, the responses nearly mirrored the previous year’s poll, the center says. In the 2022 Hoosier Survey, 30.5% of respondents believed abortion should be legal in most cases.

A total ban on abortion in Indiana went into effect on Aug. 1, but, Kinsella said, he wasn’t surprised by that topic’s results in the 2023 Hoosier Survey. “The results are very similar to last year’s results and echo election results in several red states such as Kentucky, Kansas, and Ohio. There are a lot of independents and Republicans who may be populists, libertarians, and/or business Republicans who are not eager to support issues important to more religiously oriented conservatives.”

In interviews with 600 Indiana adults, they were asked several closed-end questions concerning policy related to local, state and national politics, as well as demographic questions. No respondents were asked to identify themselves at any point during the survey, and all data is maintained as anonymous.

Results about questions regarding Hoosier approval ratings for President Joe Biden and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, election integrity, tax spending, and more will be released Jan. 23 and Jan. 30.

The inaugural Hoosier Survey was conducted in 2008.