Survey Report

Opinion on Legalizing Marijuana: 1969-2015Public opinion about legalizing marijuana, while little changed in the past few years, has undergone a dramatic long-term shift. A new survey finds that 53% favor the legal employ of marijuana, while 44% are opposed. As recently as 2006, just 32% supported marijuana legalization, while well-nigh twice as many (60%) were opposed.

Millennials (currently 18-34) accept been in the forefront of this change: 68% favor legalizing marijuana apply, by far the highest per centum of any historic period cohort. But across all generations –except for the Silent Generation (ages 70-87) – support for legalization has risen sharply over the past decade.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted March 25-29 among one,500 adults, finds that supporters of legalizing the apply of marijuana are far more likely than opponents to say they take inverse their heed on this effect. Supporters of Legalization More Likely Than Opponents to Have Changed Minds

Among the public overall, 30% say they back up legalizing marijuana use and have always felt that fashion, while 21% have inverse their minds; they say there was a time when they idea it should be illegal. By dissimilarity, 35% say they oppose legalization and have always felt that way; just seven% have changed their minds from supporting to opposing legalization.

When asked, in their own words, why they favor or oppose legalizing marijuana, people on reverse sides of the issue offer very different perspectives. But a common theme is the danger posed by marijuana: Supporters of legalization mention its perceived health benefits, or encounter it every bit no more dangerous than other drugs. To opponents, it is a dangerous drug, one that inflicts damage on people and lodge more generally. Many Supporters of Legalization Cite Marijuana's Health Benefits

The nearly frequently cited reasons for supporting the legalization of marijuana are its medicinal benefits (41%) and the conventionalities that marijuana is no worse than other drugs (36%) –with many explicitly mentioning that they retrieve it is no more than dangerous than alcohol or cigarettes.

With four states and Washington, D.C. having passed measures to let the utilize of marijuana for personal apply, 27% of supporters say legalization would atomic number 82 to improved regulation of marijuana and increased revenue enhancement revenues. Virtually i-in-ten (12%) cite the costs and problems of enforcing marijuana laws or say simply that people should be gratis to apply marijuana (9%).

Why Should Marijuana Exist Legal? Voices of Supporters

Main reason yous support legalizing use of marijuana…

"It is not as harmful as alcohol. […] It also helps medical conditions as a more natural substitute to pharmaceuticals." Female, 46

"My grandson was diagnosed with epilepsy a year ago and information technology has been proven that it helps with the seizures." Female, 69

"I retrieve crime would exist lower if they legalized marijuana. It would put the drug dealers out of business." Female, 62

"Because people should be immune to have command over their body and non have the government intervene in that." Male, 18

"I recall that we would have more control over it by allowing a federal agency to tax and regulate it like alcohol." Male person, 25

Opponents of Legal Marijuana Cite Dangers to Individuals and Society

The almost often mentioned reason why people oppose legalization is that marijuana more often than not hurts guild and is bad for individuals (43% say this). And while many supporters of legalization say that marijuana is less dangerous than other drugs, thirty% of opponents have the contrary view: They indicate to the dangers of marijuana, including the possibility of abuse and addiction.

About one-in-five opponents of legalization (19%) say marijuana is illegal and needs to be policed, 11% say information technology is a gateway to harder drugs and eight% say information technology is especially harmful to young people. A pocket-sized share of opponents (7%) say that while the recreational use of marijuana should exist illegal, they do not object to legalizing medical marijuana.1

Why Should Marijuana Be Illegal? Voices of Opponents

Primary reason you lot oppose legalizing use of marijuana…

"Information technology's a drug and it has considerable side effects. It should not be used recreationally, simply for medicinal apply." Female, twenty

"Information technology's a drug that makes you stupid. It affects your judgment and motor skills and in the long term information technology makes you lazy." Male, 52

"It gets likewise many people on drugs. It would put besides many drugs on the street, we don't need that." Male, 84

"I'm thinking of my child. I don't want her to try this. I know it's not proficient for her health or encephalon." Female, 33

"We accept enough addictive things that are already legal. We don't need another one." Male, 42

Electric current Opinion on Legalizing Marijuana

Whites and Blacks Favor Legalizing Marijuana; Hispanics Are OpposedThe pattern of opinion about legalizing marijuana has changed picayune in recent years. Beyond the wide generation gap in support for legalization, there proceed to be demographic and partisan differences.

Majorities of blacks (58%) and whites (55%) favor legalizing marijuana, compared with just 40% of Hispanics. Men (57% favor) go along to be more likely than women (49%) to support legalization.

Nearly six-in-ten Democrats (59%) favor legalizing the use of marijuana, as do 58% of independents. That compares with only 39% of Republicans.

Both parties are ideologically divided over legalizing marijuana. Conservative Republicans oppose legalizing marijuana by roughly ii-to-i (65% to 32%); moderate and liberal Republicans are divided (49% favor legalization, 50% are opposed).

Among Democrats, 75% of liberals say the apply of marijuana should be legal compared with one-half (l%) of conservative and moderate Democrats.

Views of Legalizing Marijuana, 1969-2015

Other Opinions: Federal Enforcement of Marijuana Laws

Broad Opposition to Fed Enforcement of Marijuana Laws in States Where LegalThe new survey besides finds that as some states accept legalized marijuana – placing them at odds with the federal prohibition against marijuana – a majority of Americans (59%) say that the federal government should not enforce laws in states that allow marijuana utilise; 37% say that they should enforce these laws. Views on federal enforcement of marijuana laws are unchanged since the question was starting time asked ii years ago.

In contrast to overall attitudes about the legal use of marijuana, there are only small-scale differences in views across partisan groups: 64% of independents, 58% of Democrats and 54% of Republicans say that the federal government should not enforce federal marijuana laws in states that permit its use.

A substantial majority of those who say marijuana should be legal (78%) do not think the federal government should enforce federal laws in states that allow its utilise. Amongst those who think marijuana should be illegal, 59% say there should exist federal enforcement in states that allow marijuana use, while 38% say there should non be.

Concerns About Marijuana Use

Most Would Be Bothered If People Used Marijuana in Public, But Not at HomeWhile nearly Americans support legalizing marijuana, there are concerns about public use of the drug, if it were to become legal. Overall, 62% say that if marijuana were legal it would bother them if people used it in public; just 33% say this would non bother them. Like overall views of legalizing marijuana, these views accept inverse little in recent years.

There is less business about the possibility of a marijuana-related business concern opening legally in people's ain neighborhood: 57% say information technology would not bother them if a store or business concern selling marijuana opened legally in their neighborhood, while 41% say this would bother them.

And just fifteen% say they would exist bothered if people used marijuana in their own homes; 82% say this would not carp them.

Every bit might be expected, at that place are abrupt differences in these concerns betwixt people who favor and oppose legalizing marijuana. A big majority of opponents of marijuana legalization (85%) say they would exist bothered by public employ of the drug, if information technology were legal; nearly four-in-10 supporters (43%) also say they would be bothered by this. On the other paw, a majority of opponents of legalization (65%) say they would not exist bothered if people used marijuana in their own homes; virtually all supporters of legalization (97%) would not exist bothered by this.

And while 77% of those who oppose legalizing marijuana say, if it were legal, they would be bothered if a store or business organisation selling marijuana opened in their neighborhood, just 12% of supporters of legalization say this would bother them.

About Half Say They Have Tried Marijuana

Have You Ever Tried Marijuana?Overall, 49% say they take ever tried marijuana, while 51% say they have never done this. Self-reported experience with marijuana has shown no change over the past two years, just is higher than information technology was early on last decade: In 2003, 38% said they had tried marijuana before, while 61% said they had not.

Almost a quarter of those who accept tried marijuana (12% of the public overall) say they have used marijuana in the by year. Similar percentages reported using marijuana in the prior 12 months in 2 previous surveys, conducted in February 2014 and March 2013.

Women Less Likely Than Men to Say They Have Tried MarijuanaMen (56%) are 15 points more likely than women (41%) to say they have ever tried marijuana.

About half of whites (52%) and blacks (50%) say they accept tried marijuana before. Amid Hispanics, 36% say they have tried marijuana, while 63% say they have non.

Beyond generations, 59% of Baby Boomers say they've tried marijuana earlier; this compares with 47% of Generation Xers and 52% of Millennials. Among those in the Silent generation, simply 19% say they have ever tried marijuana. Nearly a quarter of Millennials (23%) say they take used the drug in the by twelvemonth, the highest share of whatsoever historic period cohort.

There is trivial difference in the shares of Democrats (48%) and Republicans (45%) who say they've tried marijuana. Still, there are differences within each party by ideology. By a 61%-39% margin, most bourgeois Republicans say they take never tried marijuana. Amid moderate and liberal Republicans, about as many say they take (52%) equally take non (48%) tried marijuana before.

Amidst Democrats, liberals (58%) are more likely than conservatives and moderates (42%) to say they've tried marijuana.

While a majority of those who say marijuana should be legal say they've tried the drug before (65%), 34% of those who support legalization say they've never tried marijuana. Amidst those who say marijuana should be illegal, 29% say they have tried it before, while 71% say they have not.