More than two-thirds of Americans say marijuana should be legal, according to new data from Pew Research Center, as the share of those opposed to the idea plunged 20 percentage points, to 32%.
Legalization is endorsed by 78% of Democrats and 55% of Republicans. It has roughly two-thirds support among every racial, gender and educational group in the United States, the survey shows.
The findings do show one significant demographic fault line, however: age. Legalization is supported by 63% of baby boomers, 65% of Gen Xers, and 76% of millennials. But among the silent generation — those older than 74 years — support is just 35%.
Partisan differences are heavily mediated by age as well. Among the silent generation, for instance, there is a 32-point gap in support between Democrats (53%) and Republicans (21%). Among millennials, regardless of party affiliation, more than 70% support legal marijuana.

In assessing support for marijuana, surveys have typically posed a simple question: “Do you think the use of marijuana should be made legal, or should NOT be made legal?” For this survey, however, Pew researchers posed a separate question to suss out whether Americans back recreational marijuana, medical marijuana, both or neither.
Fifty-nine percent said it should be legal for both medical and recreational purposes, a 10-point increase since fall 2016. Thirty-two percent said it should be legal for medical use only. Just 8% said it should not be legal at all, a steep drop from the 15% recorded in 2016.
As with many political issues, the public’s preferences on marijuana are well to the left of where the policy currently stands. The plant remains illegal for all purposes under federal law. Recreational marijuana is legal in 11 states plus Washington D.C., in most cases because of voter-approved ballot initiatives. Most other states have some form of medical marijuana law, although in many cases there are severe restrictions on the conditions for which medical marijuana can be used, or on the types of marijuana that can be used.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, just four states — Idaho, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas — prohibit marijuana use in all forms.
“As more and more states have moved forward with their own marijuana liberalization policies in recent years, public support has only grown stronger,” Erik Altieri, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said in a statement. “At a time when the political divide is larger than ever, the issue of marijuana legalization is one of the few policy issues upon which most Americans agree.”
Legalization foes contend that marijuana use comes with negative health effects. This week, the group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) highlighted the results of a study in the journal JAMA Psychiatry showing a half-percentage-point increase in rates of problematic cannabis use among teens in states that have legalized recreational use.
“Legalization efforts are sending the message that marijuana use is safe and state sanctioned,” SAM President Kevin Sabet said in a statement. “No amount of marijuana use is safe for young people and more must be done to halt its normalization.”
Most of the Democratic presidential candidates support legalizing recreational use in some form or another. But there are notable outliers, among them former vice president Joe Biden, who long supported “tough on crime” legislation while he was in the U.S. Senate. He opposes legalization but has signaled a preference to reduce criminal penalties for pot use.
Billionaire Democratic hopeful Michael Bloomberg recently called marijuana legalization “the stupidest thing anyone has ever done.”
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has had little to say about marijuana one way or another during his time in office, though he did recently reiterate support for letting states decide their own policies.
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Anyone with half a brain and the ability to research marijuana laws know that race was the main factor involved with creating the ban, the laws and policies around marijuana, simply put, racist and racist inspired laws. States should call on president Trump to send an executive order to the DEA to remove marijuana from the schedule one, treat it like alcohol or tobacco. Anything short of this exemplifies states still do not understand race issues in the United States.
To add value to the reasons for legalizing marijuana is that most voters want it legal just like beer wine cigarettes vapes etc. Treat it as such. As for potency issues there is no difference between the potency issues of low alcohol and low levels of nicotine products verse high levels of alcohol and nicotine products, all of which have age limits,21 and over (most states), simply put use existing laws to enforce including driving while under the influence.
As for underage use kids already use nicotine, alcohol, pot and other substances, it’s common knowledge it’s easier to get illegal substances so legalizing pot will make it harder to access.
As for sugar just research obesity rates and age of first consumption. More Americans abuse sugar than any other substances. Not everyone who drinks is an alcoholic and not everyone who consumes marijuana is a psychosis case.
Just follow the money and special interest, those making the most money off bad policies, broken criminal justice laws want to conserve their kingdoms, it’s time for the majority of the rulers to listen to the people, the majority of the people and not special interest.
As for those who are really concerned with addiction, myself who is in long term recovery with over 37 years clean and sober, a person who helps addicts on a daily basis, I would much rather see my population in need of recovery from marijuana than alcohol, opiates and other substances and I would bet all the families that have suffered the loss of a loved one to alcohol, nicotine and opiates wished their loved one only consumed marijuana because they would still more than likely be alive and well.
When we truly compare the positive with the negative legalizing marijuana is such a no brainer ,YES, legalize federally, ASAP !
8% answer surveys? Who are these people that believe others should not have freedom to entirely personal actions.
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