The percentage of Americans who say that “the use of marijuana should be legal” remains at a record high, according to new nationwide polling data provided by Gallup.
Sixty-eight percent of respondents endorse cannabis legalization — the same level of support reported by pollsters in 2021 and 2020. Majorities of nearly every subgroup surveyed expressed support for legalization.
“An overwhelming majority of Americans have consistently opposed our failed prohibition of marijuana for years now, and it defies common sense that our elected officials at the federal level have yet to take any meaningful action,” NORML’s Executive Director Erik Altieri said. “Voters of every age and in virtually every region of the country agree that marijuana should be legal. It is well past time that Congress finally takes action to reform our nation’s laws to reflect the people’s will and relegate our disastrous prohibition policies to the trash bin of history.”
In 1969, when Gallup first began surveying the question, only twelve percent of Americans backed marijuana legalization. In 1996, when California voters became the first state in the nation to legalize cannabis for medical use, 25 percent of Americans said that marijuana should be legal for those ages 21 and older. Since 2012, when Colorado and Washington became the first two states to legalize marijuana for adults, public support for legalization has risen nationally by some 20 percentage points. Legalization has enjoyed majority support among Americans since 2013.
Consistent with previous polls, Gallup reported that most Democrats (81 percent) and political independents (70 percent) support marijuana legalization. By contrast, Republicans are nearly evenly split on the question (51 percent in favor). The only two subgroups that did not express majority support were self-identified conservatives (49 percent) and individuals who attend church services weekly (46 percent).
The Gallup poll comes just days after the release of other national polls – including those by Fox News and by Monmouth University – similarly showing strong public support for marijuana legalization.
Read the full survey results of the gallup survey here.
