59% Of Americans United On Idea Of Making Marijuana Fully Legal, Latest Pew Survey Reveals

As more and more US states legalize marijuana and studies shed light on the various impacts the plant has on our bodies, Americans seem to be more united than ever on the idea of fully embracing the plant.

A new survey from Pew Research Center revealed that 88% of U.S. adults think cannabis should be legal either for medical or recreational use, with 59% supporting full adult-use and 30% arguing it should be legalized only for medical use. The research, conducted Oct. 10-16 2022, basically confirmed the opinions from April last year, also revealing that just 10% of Americans think cannabis should be fully illegal.

As more states allow the use of marijuana, the public continues to favor legalizing the drug for medical and recreational purposes. https://t.co/4aBFpGRaMX pic.twitter.com/YqpShNM7kM

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) November 22, 2022

The new research results come several weeks after President Joe Biden announced pardoning people convicted for federal marijuana possession offenses and directed the attorney general and the Department of Health and Human Services to review marijuana's classification under federal law as a schedule one drug, the same classification as heroin and LSD. Furthermore, the survey was conducted before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, when Missouri and Maryland legalized recreational cannabis use, joining 19 states and the District of Columbia.

The survey results are in line with a recent Gallup survey that only asks if cannabis should be legal, without specifying if it should be legalized for recreational or medical use. According to the last Gallup research from November, as many as 68% of U.S. residents support cannabis legalization. The figure is the same as last year, which is the highest percentage of support ever revealed in a national Gallup poll.

Pew Research Survey Highlights 

• Older adults are far less likely than younger Americans to support adult-use cannabis legalization; 
• Among those 75 years and older, just 3 in 10 agree marijuana should be legal for both uses; 
• 45% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents favor fully legalizing the plant, while an extra 39% think it should legal for medical use;
• 73% of Democrats and Democratic leaners say marijuana should be legal for both purposes, with an additional 21% agreeing it should be legal only for medical purposes.
• Around two-thirds of Black adults (68%) and 6 in 10 white adults think cannabis should be fully legal, compared with a smaller share of Hispanic (49%) and Asian adults (48%).

Photo: Courtesy of Joel Muniz on Unsplash