Dawson Bell and Megha Satyanarayana
Detroit Free Press

Proposals to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes and ease restrictions on stem-cell research using human embryos are favored by a majority of Michigan voters, a Detroit Free Press-Local 4 Michigan Poll shows.

But political analysts and history suggest that backers of the two measures, especially Proposal 2 on stem-cell research, shouldn’t feel comfortable just yet.

“No-vote campaigns are easier, and they can come late,” said Ann Selzer of Selzer & Co. in Des Moines, Iowa, who conducted the poll last week.

Michigan voters appear to be relatively well-settled on their support of medical marijuana, Selzer said. But the stem-cell issue is potentially volatile.

Opponents of Proposal 2 like to evoke Proposal B in 1998, a measure to legalize assisted suicide. Early polls showed support for Proposal B at more than 60%, and it remained ahead (48%-43%) in a late September poll, before losing 71%-29%.

The new poll also showed support for Proposal 1, which allows the cultivation and use of marijuana by patients with serious medical conditions such as cancer and glaucoma, at 66%, with 25% opposed and 9% undecided.

Proposal 2 was supported by 58%, with 31% opposed and 11% undecided.

The poll, conducted Sept. 22-24, was based on telephone interviews with 602 likely voters, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Debate over stem-cell research Chris DeWitt, spokesman for Cure Michigan, the group backing Proposal 2, said: “It is clear that voters in Michigan want to pursue stem-cell research to find cures for deadly and debilitating diseases.”

David Doyle, spokesman for Proposal 2 opponent MiCAUSE -- Michigan Citizens Against Unrestricted Science and Experimentation -- said he was not surprised by the results.

“It takes an educational process for people to understand” what the proposal does, Doyle said. “Once they do, and they realize it leads to unrestricted experimentation in Michigan, they’ll vote no.”

Both sides began TV advertising campaigns last week, and the tempo and volume of public debate over the proposal likely will increase in October.

Support for Proposal 2 in the Free Press poll was strongest among Democrats (75%), those with college education, (63%) and those in households with incomes of at least $85,000 (64%). Despite the Catholic Church’s opposition, 56% of Catholics in the poll said they support the proposal. Pros and cons of marijuana The medical marijuana proposal attracted support from majorities across the board. The sharpest contrast was between Republicans, at 53% support, and Democrats, at 74%.

Billy Ratliff, 67, of Detroit said he has heard “good things” about the effectiveness of marijuana as a treatment for some conditions and was almost certain to vote yes on Proposal 1.

“Sure, there is the possibility of abuse,” Ratliff said, “but I think alcohol is more of a factor” in society’s overall substance-abuse problem.

Sally Bloomfield, 38, of Livonia said she was leaning toward voting no but hadn’t given it much thought. Bloomfield said she has a hard time associating marijuana use with good health but might change her mind. “I didn’t even know it was on the ballot,” she said.

Mark Grebner, an East Lansing-based political consultant, said voters’ relative lack of interest and understanding about the ballot proposals means that surveys about them “don’t tell you anything useful about how people will actually vote.”

“Voters … may have opinions, but what drives voting is what they read on the ballot.”