Fifty-two percent of California voters surveyed by Survey USA support Proposition 64, the proposed measure that would allow for recreational adult-use sales in the state, according to the report. Pictured: A pedestrian walks past a neon sign advertising a California medical marijuana provider along a street in the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles in 2010. (Richard Vogel, Associated Press file)

Polls: California marijuana legalization expected to pass

California marijuana legalization is trending favorably among voters, two polls released this week show.

Fifty-two percent of California voters surveyed by Survey USA support Proposition 64, the proposed measure that would allow for recreational adult-use sales in the state, according to the Orange County Register report. A second poll, conducted by USC Dornsife and the Los Angeles Times, showed that 58 percent of the state’s voters favored the legalization measure and that the support spanned “most lines of age, race, income and gender,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

The 27-question Survey USA poll released Monday by the Southern California News Group and KABC/Eyewitness News included the following question:

Currently, medical marijuana is legal in California, but recreational marijuana is not. Proposition 64 would legalize and tax the recreational use of marijuana. Will you vote YES on Proposition 64, which would legalize the recreational use of marijuana by adults age 21 and older, and which would license, regulate and tax the marijuana industry? Or, will you vote NO on 64, which would keep state laws as they now are?

52% Yes On 64

40% No On 64

8% Undecided

0% Will Not Vote

The majority of the Survey USA questions focused on the 2016 presidential race and how California voters viewed candidates such as Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Republican nominee Donald Trump as well as third-party candidates such as Gary Johnson and Jill Stein.

The L.A. Times poll results showed that 34 percent of the 1,879 survey respondents opposed Proposition 64 and 8 percent declined to respond.

Of the supporters, the measure is doing best among the younger voters: 67 percent of those 18 to 24 years of age said they would vote for Proposition 64. About 50 percent of voters 65 years and older support the measure, according to the L.A. Times.

In 2010, the last time California voted for pot legalization, nearly 54 percent of voters opposed the measure, the L.A. Times reported:

Some of the change appears to have come from the ability of Californians to watch what has happened in other states that legalized recreational pot use: Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska, said Jon Cohen, an executive for SurveyMonkey, the firm that conducted the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.

“Some of the calamitous predictions of legalization opponents haven’t come to pass” in other states, Cohen said.

Click here to read the Orange County Register’s full report.

Click here to read the Los Angeles Times’ full report.