New Gallup Poll Has Support for Marijuana Legalization at 58%

A new Gallup poll released today has 58% saying marijuana should be legal in the US. That ties the 58% reported by Gallup two years ago after support declined to 51% last year.

The 58% figure is the highest ever recorded in a Gallup poll, and is consistent with majority support for marijuana legalization reported in other state and national polls in recent months. And Gallup says that figure is likely to continue to increase, thanks to both younger residents more likely to support legalization and the dying off of older Americans, who are more likely to oppose legalization.

"Americans' support for legalizing marijuana is the highest Gallup has measured to date, at 58%," the polling firm noted. "Given the patterns of support by age, that percentage should continue to grow in the future. Younger generations of Americans have been increasingly likely to favor legal use of marijuana as they entered adulthood compared with older generations of Americans when they were the same age decades ago. Now, more than seven in 10 of today's young adults support legalization. But Americans today -- particularly those between 35 and 64 -- are more supportive of legal marijuana than members of their same birth cohort were in the past. Now senior citizens are alone among age groups in opposing pot legalization."

The poll had majority support for legalization among every age group except those 65 and older. Support was at 71% among the 18-to-34 group, 64% for the 35-49 group, 58% among the 50-to-64 group, and only 35% among those 65 and older.

Despite public support for legalization and despite legalization already being the law in four states and the nation's capital, marijuana arrests remain near all-time highs. In 2014 there were 700,993 arrests for marijuana in the United States, nearly nine out of ten of them for simple possession. Black and brown people continue to be arrested for pot offenses at a disproportionate rate.

Drug reform activists like what Gallup was selling.

"The latest poll results point to the absurdity and even venality of persisting with harsh prohibitionist policies," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "No other law is enforced so harshly and pervasively yet deemed unnecessary by so many Americans. Spending billions of dollars and arresting 700,000 people annually for violating marijuana laws now represents not just foolish public policy but also an inappropriate and indecent use of police powers. More elected officials need to realize that legalizing marijuana is not just the right thing to do -- it's the politically smart thing to do too."

"It's pretty clear which direction our nation is heading on this issue. The status quo has shifted," said Mason Tvert, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project. "Marijuana prohibition has been a public policy disaster, and most Americans are ready to put it behind us and move on. The effects of 80-plus years of anti-marijuana propaganda are slowly wearing off. Once people realize that marijuana is actually safer than alcohol, they tend to agree that adults should not be punished just for consuming it. People can see that legalizing and regulating marijuana is going quite well in states like Colorado and Washington. They see the sky hasn't fallen and that regulation works, and they want to take similar steps forward in their states. We will likely see at least a handful of states pass these laws over the next year or so."

"These days it's not especially exciting to see yet another poll showing majority support for legalizing marijuana, but 58 percent is very strong share of the American people calling for change, and elected officials should listen," said Tom Angell, chairman of the increasingly aptly named Marijuana Majority. "The constant stream of surveys showing public support for ending prohibition is why we're seeing an increasing number of national politicians saying that it's time to at least let states implement their own laws without federal interference. And we're also seeing a growing number candidates endorsing legalization outright, which shows how mainstream this issue is now. As more states implement marijuana reforms and those laws continue to work as advertised, we're likely to see even more public support, which should soon spur Congress to formally end the criminalization of cannabis under federal law."

Ohio votes on marijuana in less than two weeks, and legalization initiatives are likely to be on the ballot next year in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada. These kinds of polling numbers could encourage people in other states to climb on the bandwagon as well.