The online survey “Your opinion on legalising marijuana” (20 February 2017; 214 participants) shows a strong split in first associations, but near-plebiscitary support for medical use. When they hear the word “marijuana,” the most common impulse is “drug” (40 mentions), followed by “medicine” and “relaxation” (16 each), along with “weed,” “plant,” “joint” — a vocabulary that simultaneously points to stigma and to normalisation in everyday speech.
Respondents most often link their knowledge about marijuana to the internet (22.14%) and professional literature (19.27%), while 15.10% say they use it and 13.80% say they have tried it before. Media are a source of knowledge for 16.41%, and social networks for 5.99%. In other words, most people seek information outside traditional media — or through personal experience.
The clearest finding concerns medical use: 84.58% say “I know about it and support” the possibility of using marijuana for medical purposes, and 71.96% report knowing cases where its use “had a positive effect” on treatment. On the list of illnesses, the dominant belief is that it can help with cancer (72.43% “I know and believe”), depression (67.76%) and multiple sclerosis (61.21%), while confidence is lower — but still substantial — for Parkinson’s and epilepsy (50.93% each).
Willingness to use marijuana as a medicine is high: 77.10% would use it “absolutely,” and 17.29% would use it if convinced of the therapy’s success. Support for treating seriously ill patients is also overwhelming — 86.45% — with the view that costs should be covered by the state (while 11.68% think the patient should pay).
Methodological note: the sample is online and self-selected, so it is not representative of Serbia’s population.