Americans’ Support For Marijuana Legalization Stabilizes With Bipartisan Majorities In Favor, Gallup Poll Finds

Support for marijuana legalization appears to be stabilizing nationwide, with a new Gallup survey showing that a strong bipartisan majority of Americans continue to back the reform.

Support did dip slightly since Gallup’s last poll on legalizing cannabis one year ago, though within the margin of error—a result that a spokesperson for the firm said is not a “statistically meaningful change.”

As voters prepare for next week’s election—which will see marijuana reform on multiple state ballots—the Gallup poll found that 68 percent of Americans are in favor of cannabis legalization, while 31 percent are opposed.

Supporters include 85 percent of Democrats, 69 percent of independents and 53 percent of Republicans. A majority of respondents across every age demographic also backs ending prohibition, ranging from 74 percent of adults aged 18-29 to 56 percent of those 65 and older.

The overall 68 percent support among U.S. adults is two percentage points lower compared to last year’s Gallup survey on the issue, when it reached an all-time high of 70 percent. From 2020 to 2022, support also stayed steady at 68 percent.

The latest survey involved interviews with 1,023 Americans from October 1-12, with a +/-4 percentage point margin of error.

Gallup also released a poll in August finding that Americans view marijuana as less harmful than alcohol, tobacco and nicotine vapes—and more adults now smoke cannabis than smoke cigarettes.

Additionally, a poll Gallup conducted in 2020 found that 70 percent of Americans view smoking cannabis to be a morally acceptable activity. That’s higher than their views on the morality of issues such as gay relationships, medical testing of animals, the death penalty and abortion.

The research organization also released data in February finding that young people are more than five times more likely to consume cannabis than tobacco.

Another series of polls that YouGov released in August found widespread majority support for cannabis legalization, federal rescheduling and marijuana industry banking access among likely voters in three key presidential battleground states: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

It seems clear that, at least at the presidential level, candidates on both sides of the aisle are aware of the bipartisan popularity of marijuana reform. For the first time in U.S. history, both major party nominees—Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump—have publicly voiced support for legalization.

A majority of voters who use marijuana say they’ll be casting their vote for Harris, according to a recent poll. Still, two in five cannabis consumers say they’ll be backing Trump.

Last week Harris included legalizing marijuana as one of the top items on her “to-do list” if she wins the presidential election.

That came just weeks after the vice president first pledged to federally legalize marijuana since becoming the party’s nominee, promising that access to cannabis will become “the law of the land.”

Trump, for his part, has endorsed a Florida marijuana legalization ballot initiative, as well as federal cannabis banking reform and rescheduling.

The former president’s support for rescheduling took on additional weight on Thursday after it was revealed that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) hearing on the Biden administration’s proposal to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III may not take place until after the inauguration in January.

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Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.