Americans suspect that a pretty significant number of their representatives in Congress smoke marijuana, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds. But the poll also shows that most aren't especially concerned about their representatives' toking habits.
While one politician, Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), estimated that about 5 percent of his colleagues currently use marijuana, most Americans have a, well, higher estimate: On average, Americans guess that 30 percent of lawmakers smoke weed.
The poll found wide variation in Americans' estimates: Fifty-eight percent guess a quarter or less, while 16 percent think that half or more of Congress gets stoned.
Americans suspect that even more members of Congress have smoked marijuana at some point in their lives. Fifty-one percent of representatives was the average guess.
Not only that, but 23 percent of Americans suspect that their own member of Congress smokes marijuana, while another 40 percent aren't sure. Only 38 percent say they don't think so.
Most Americans, however, wouldn't feel very upset if they did find out their member of Congress gets high. A combined 53 percent say they would be not very (21 percent) or not at all (32 percent) upset if they knew their rep was smoking weed. Only 20 percent say they would be very upset, and 18 percent would be somewhat upset. Only 33 percent say they think smoking pot would prevent a person from being a good member of Congress, while 50 percent say it would not.
Americans don't all agree on how they'd feel about their rep getting stoned, however. Fifty-three percent of Republicans say they would be at least somewhat upset about the revelation that their own representative smokes marijuana, and 57 percent of Americans age 65 and over feel the same way. Majorities of independents and Democrats, along with Americans under 65, said they would be not very upset or not upset at all.
But Democrats, Republicans and independents are all about equally likely to surmise that they are currently represented by a pot smoker.
The HuffPost/YouGov poll was conducted March 14-16 among 1,000 U.S. adults using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population. Factors considered include age, race, gender, education, employment, income, marital status, number of children, voter registration, time and location of Internet access, interest in politics, religion and church attendance.
The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling.