67% of Americans Are Ready to End Federal Cannabis Prohibition

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A new cannabis opinion poll discovered record support for nationwide marijuana legalization, with more than two thirds of American adults now indicating that they are ready to end federal pot prohibition once and for all.

The new research comes from the Pew Research Center, a Washington DC-based non-partisan think tank. In their latest cannabis study, Pew researchers found a whopping 67% total support for legalization, up from 62% support in 2018

Broken down by age, support for legalization is most popular with younger adults, with 76% of Millennial respondents saying that they believe cannabis should be legal. Those numbers decrease slightly for members of Generation X and Baby Boomers, who support legalization at rates of 65% and 63%, respectively. The Silent Generation, however, still has some remaining prohibitionists. Despite changing attitudes across most age demographics, only 32% of Americans who are 74 and older voiced support for cannabis legalization.

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In addition to a clear generation gap, researchers also found stark contrasts in cannabis support among various political affiliations. While 78% of all Democrats and Independents support legalization, only 55% of registered Republicans are on board with ending prohibition. 

Outside of the elderly and publicly-facing right wingers, though, legalization found broad support (above 63%) across all genders, races, and education levels.

More than half of the country currently lives in a state or district that allows either medical or recreational cannabis, but at the federal level, lawmakers and president Trump have been slow to respond to the will of constituents. But as we inch closer to next year’s presidential race, all of the leading Democratic primary contenders have voiced support for outright federal legalization. 

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