The number of Fort Collins residents who support policies allowing commercial marijuana establishments slightly outnumbers those who are opposed, with neither group holding a majority, according to early findings from a survey conducted by the Health District of Northern Larimer County.

Among adult residents of Fort Collins participating in the Health District’s 2013 Community Health Survey 45 percent said that they favor or strongly favor policies that would “Allow operation of retail marijuana stores and cultivation facilities ,” while 40 percent were opposed, a statistically significant difference. The margin of error for this finding is +/- 2.5 percent. Fifteen (15) percent of respondents had no opinion.

A majority of responses fell at one or another extreme, with 28 percent strongly opposing and 24 percent strongly favoring.

Support for policies allowing commercial marijuana establishments was closely associated with age, with support highest among younger respondents (59 percent among those ages 18-29).

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Most respondents (82 percent) reported that they were not current users (using within the past 12 months), while 18 percent had used marijuana for recreational or medicinal purposes in the past 12 months. Overall, 44 percent of survey respondents living in Fort Collins reported never using marijuana, while 52 percent said they had used it, if only once. These results also are strongly related to age, with the likelihood of a person reporting that they had never used marijuana increasing with age, and the likelihood of a person reporting their being a current user decreasing with age. Persons ages 18-29 most frequently reported being current users.

Current use of marijuana also was strongly correlated with support for policies regarding commercial marijuana operations, with 88 percent of current users supporting such policies and 61 percent of those who had never used marijuana opposing them.

These early findings, which are only for Fort Collins, are part of the 2013 Community Health Survey, a countywide measure of local health status and health-care access that has been conducted by the Health District every three years since 1995. The most recent survey took place in the fall of 2013 when more than 2,800 adults from across Larimer County completed the 16-page, 83-question survey. It was a random-sample survey and completely confidential.

For the first time, the 2013 survey included questions about marijuana use and opinions about marijuana policies due to the evolving nature of this public health issue in the community. Currently the results for the marijuana-related questions are only available for survey respondents living with Fort Collins ZIP codes. The Health District routinely shares relevant survey data with other local organizations, and these preliminary findings on marijuana have been shared with the City of Fort Collins.

The Community Health Survey is part of an ongoing community assessment to determine the health status and health-care needs of Health District residents. This assessment is used to guide the planning, implementation and evaluation of services provided by the Health District. It also enables the Health District and other local health-care providers and policy-makers to identify and track trends affecting the health of the community.

The Health District is a local public agency that provides dental, mental health, prescription assistance and health promotion services to the residents of northern Larimer County.

Data Summary: Marijuana Use and Policy Preferences in Fort Collins