The press release was prepared by Anton Hrushetskyi, executive director of KIIS

During May 16-22, 2024, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted its own all-Ukrainian public opinion survey "Omnibus", to which, on its own initiative, it added questions about the attitude to the legalization of medical cannabis (in the form of a special experiment). By the method of telephone interviews (computer-assistedtelephoneinterviews, CATI) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers (with random generation of phone numbers and subsequent statistical weighting), 1,067 respondents living in all regions of Ukraine (territory under the control of the Government of Ukraine) were interviewed. The survey was conducted with adult (aged 18 and older) citizens of Ukraine who, at the time of the survey, lived on the territory of Ukraine controlled by the Government of Ukraine. The sample did not include residents of territories that are temporarily not controlled by the authorities of Ukraine (at the same time, out of 1,067 respondents from February 22 to 24, 2022, lived in the territory that is now occupied), and the survey was not conducted with citizens who went abroad after February 24, 2022.

Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.1) did not exceed 3.4% for indicators close to 50%, 3.0% for indicators close to 25%, 2.1% - for indicators close to 10%, 1.5% - for indicators close to 5%.

Under the conditions of war, in addition to the specified formal error, a certain systematic deviation is added. Factors that can affect the quality of results in "wartime" conditions were previously cited by KIIS.

In general, we believe that the obtained results are still highly representative and allow a fairly reliable analysis of the public moods of the population.

The issue of limited legalization of the use of cannabis has been intensively discussed in Ukraine over the past few years. Finally, in December 2023, the Verkhovna Rada approved, and from August 16, 2024, the Law allowing (with restrictions) the circulation of cannabis for medical purposes came into force.

There was a lively discussion in the community, and the parties presented different arguments and often tried to form an appropriate context for the discussion. For example, some proponents of cannabis legalization emphasized its use for medical purposes to relieve pain (especially against the background of full-scale war). Accordingly, in this case, the line of argument led to the moral and humanistic correctness of relieving people's pain. At the same time, some opponents pointed out that marijuana, i.e., a light drug, was "hiding" under the conditionally neutral word "cannabis" (and little understood by ordinary Ukrainians). And in this case, accordingly, the line of argumentation is that the use of even light drugs is harmful to a person and society and, in particular, can lead to addiction and the transition to harder drugs.

Therefore, when we now discuss attitudes towards the legalization of cannabis, it is important to understand how context affects it. In our survey, we conducted a split-sample experiment, according to which we asked different respondents question in different wordings (that is, one respondent was asked only one question). In total, we test three formulations:

• attitude towards the legalization of medical cannabis in general, without additional explanations or details (basic version);
• attitude towards the legalization of medical cannabis, with an emphasis on the fact that it will relieve the pain of many patients (in particular, those with cancer and wounded military personnel);
• attitude to the legalization of medical cannabis, specifying that it is a light drug - marijuana.

As you can see in graph 1, for the basic question (without additional information) 43% of Ukrainians answer that they have a positive attitude towards the legalization of medical cannabis. Almost three times less respondents (16%) answered that they have a negative attitude. At the same time, 41% of respondents have either a neutral or uncertain attitudeня.

In the case of the question where we "clarified" that it was about a soft drug - marijuana, the approval rates turned out to be quite similar. Yes, 45% in this formulation answered that they have a positive attitude towards legalization (the difference compared to the basic question is within statistical error). At the same time, the share of opponents, although statistically significantly (above the margin of error), is higher, but still only 23%. Another 32% have a neutral or undecided attitude.

 And finally, the option where we focused on pain relief. In this context, the majority of Ukrainians - 57% - approve of the legalization of medical cannabis. Only 14% still have a negative attitude, and another 28% have a neutral or undecided attitude.

Graph1. Attitudes toward the legalization of medical cannabis depending on the wording of the question

To analyze the trend among individual socio-demographic categories, we combined respondents who answered different wordings of the question. Below in the table are the results for each socio-demographic category (which reflect the "averaged" attitude towards legalization regardless of the wording of the question).

As can be seen, among different socio-demographic categories, the attitude towards the legalization of medical cannabis is quite close, and among all categories there are significantly more people who have a positive attitude than those who have a negative attitude.

Table 1. Attitudes towards the legalization of medical cannabis among certain socio-demographic categories

A. Hrushetskyi, comments on the survey results:

Euro-Atlantic integration, which is definitely supported by the majority of the population of Ukraine, concerns not only socio-economic or security issues, but also a worldview dimension, in particular, difficult, debatable issues. This also applies to the legalization of cannabis. The growth of a positive attitude towards the legalization of medical cannabis can be considered as one of the indicators of the modernization of the values of Ukrainians and approximation to the European / Western ones, greater crystallization of Ukraine as part of the European / Western world.

It is worth recalling that not so long ago Ukrainians demonstrated much higher conservatism. For example, in one of the surveys of colleagues[1] back in 2016, 85% believed that soft drugs should be "completely banned" In 2019, in a KMIS survey for "Detector Media", 76% of respondents answered that they would not use media that "constantly promotes the issue of legalization of soft drugs, prostitution" (here, of course, the legalization of prostitution was also mentioned, but in general this illustrates the conservatism of attitudes Ukrainians)[2].

Notably, it used to be typical to use the term "soft drugs" to research the question (and this was reflected in the wording of the questions). For now, it is important that the framework of the discussion itself has been reformatted to discuss "cannabis" and at this stage - with an emphasis on medical purposes. For many Ukrainians, this format is much more acceptable, and it even opened Ukrainians to rethinking the issue and allowed them to "accept" the arguments (and not to answer in advance with a categorical refusal, because we are talking about "drugs").

Now we are observing fundamental changes in the minds of citizens, who are already favorably disposed to legalization. However, caution should be exercised. There remains a fairly large proportion of those who have a neutral or undecided attitude. In addition, the Law has just entered into force and it is important how exactly the implementation will look like. Can be expected narratives about "corruption in this area," about "turning Ukraine into a drug laboratory," about "the growth of drug addicts," etc. That is, opponents of legalization retain the opportunity to influence public opinion, and this should be taken into account so that there is no rollback from the current (rather positive) state.

Annex 1. Formulation of questions from the questionnaire

А10. SPLIT-SAMPLE. RESPONDENT IS ASKED ONE OF THREE QUESTIONS

OPTION А: As you know, the Law on the Legalization of Medical Cannabis was approved in Ukraine. What is your general attitude towards it?

OPTION Б: As you know, the Law on the Legalization of Medical Cannabis was approved in Ukraine. This Law will allow many patients, such as cancer patients, wounded military personnel, and others, to receive pain relief. What is your general attitude towards it?

OPTION В: As you know, the Law on the Legalization of Medical Cannabis was approved in Ukraine, that is, a soft drug - marijuana, which should be used for medical purposes. What is your general attitude towards it?