Six out of 10 Americans Favor Legalizing Cannabis

[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]S[/dropcap]ixty-two percent of Americans agree that cannabis consumption should be legalized, according to a new Pew Research Center study. Support for cannabis legalization is shared across all living generations except the Silent Generation, the oldest living Americans.

Support for cannabis legalization doubled its rate compared to the year 2000 when only 31 percent of respondents said that cannabis should be legalized. Nearly three-quarters of Millennials (74 percent) said that cannabis should be legal, while 63 percent of Gen Xers and 54 percent of Baby Boomers agreed. The only generation that didn’t support cannabis legalization by majority was the Silent Generation. Only thirty-nine percent of the Silent Generation said they are in favor of cannabis legalizations.

Results were recently obtained by interviewers under the direction of Abt Associates. “The analysis in this report is based on telephone interviews conducted September 18-24, 2018 among a national sample of 1,754 adults, 18 years of age or older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia (439 respondents were interviewed on a landline telephone, and 1,315 were interviewed on a cell phone, including 829 who had no landline telephone)” the study’s methodology report read.

Across political lines, 75 percent of Independents were in favor of legalization, while 69 percent of Democrats and 45 percent of Republicans were in favor of legalization. Religion in 2018 appears to have no effect on cannabis stigma as in years past—White mainline Protestants, Catholics and people unaffiliated with religion all favored legalizing cannabis by majority. People with higher levels of education supported cannabis more than people with a high school diploma or less.

For a refresher, in 1969, the first time a national survey on cannabis was conducted, only 12 percent of Americans were in support of legalized cannabis. That number has steadily grown every decade until cannabis proponents surpassed opponents circa 2010.