Pew Poll: Marijuana Prohibition Is Increasingly Unpopular Among Americans

Eighty-eight percent of Americans say that marijuana should be legal for either medical or adult use, according to nationwide polling compiled by the Pew Research Center.

The results are consistent with those of prior Pew polls finding that only about ten percent of US adults support a blanket policy of cannabis criminalization.

“Liberalizing marijuana laws continues to be a policy that is widely favored by voters,” NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano said. “Elected officials who refuse to take action to end cannabis criminalization, or who vote stand in the way of these reform efforts, do so at their own political peril.”

Fifty-five percent of respondents said that cannabis should be legal for both medical and adult use, while 33 percent of those surveyed supported medical marijuana legalization only. Consistent with prior polls, support for legalizing cannabis is strongest among liberal-leaning and younger voters (those ages 18 to 29), and it is weakest among more politically conservative-leaning voters and those over the age of 75.

Twenty-four states have legalized marijuana for adults and 41 states regulate medical cannabis access to qualified patients. More than half of Americans now reside in a jurisdiction where the adult-use cannabis market is legally regulated, while 79 percent live in a county with at least one marijuana dispensary.

Additional public opinion polling data is available from NORML.