Which groups in Georgia tend to support marijuana legalization more?

On July 30, 2018 the Constitutional Court of Georgia legalized the consumption of marijuana. But what was public opinion on marijuana legalization before the decision? In June 2018, CRRC-Georgia carried out a survey for NDI Georgia that asked: “In your opinion, should marijuana be legalized in Georgia or not?”

While 18% answered marijuana should be legalized, according to 74% it should not. Support for legalization was slightly higher among men, younger people (18-35), and Tbilisi residents. Attitudes did not vary by level of education.

While it is now legal to consume marijuana in Georgia, a large majority of the public was against legalization the month before it was legalized. Whether people’s attitudes have changed since or whether they will change as time goes on is, of course, the subject of future research.

To explore the data used in this blog post, visit our Online Data Analysis portal.

Drugs Use Survey of Georgian Students, 2003

The Georgian Research Institute on Addictions (GRIA) in 2003 conducted a survey of about 700 students in Tbilisi's universities.

52.6% of male respondents say they have used hashish at least once. About 8% of males responded that they smoked it regularly over the last year, with a total of 4% claiming they used it very regularly over the last 30 days.

The data probably is unreliable (I have not seen the actual study), but the one interesting feature is that only 3.4% of female respondents say they had ever used hashish. And none said they use it regularly. Overall, this seems to tally with the results from CRRC's Data Initiative on smoking: there is a very strong gender discrepancy, with around 5% of female Georgian respondents admitting to smoking (whereas around 45% of males say they smoke).

According to the Ministry of Interior, 2004 prices for 5 g of marijuana are roughly 7-9 US dollars.

Source: Georgian Research Institute on Addiction, Georgia Today, 8-14 December 2006