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Poll: Legal Marijuana Support At Record High In U.S.

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Nearly two out of three Americans now support legalizing marijuana.

The 64% of Americans who say cannabis should be legal in a new Gallup poll released on Wednesday represents the highest level of support in the organization’s 48 years of polling on the topic.

Courtesy of Gallup

The new survey also shows that a majority of Republicans — 51% — support legalization for the first time. Seventy-two percent of Democrats and 67% of independents are on board.

Courtesy of Gallup

The percentage of Americans who want to end cannabis prohibition is up four points since last year, and has more than doubled since 2000.

Meanwhile, opposition to legalization has dropped to an all-time low of just 34%.

Gallup been asking the same question — “Do you think the use of marijuana should be made legal, or not? — since 1969. That year, only 12% of Americans backed legalization.

Last year the poll pegged support for ending marijuana prohibition at a then-record of 60%.

The continuing increase in Americans’ desire to legalize cannabis comes as more states are enacting laws to end prohibition, while the Trump administration sends concerning and at times conflicting signals about its approach to federal enforcement.

“It makes sense that support for ending marijuana prohibition is increasing,” Morgan Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project said in a statement. “Americans are tired of wasting resources arresting hundreds of thousands of individuals every year for using a substance that is safer than alcohol. In the five years since the first states made marijuana legal for adults, it has become increasingly clear that — unlike prohibition — regulation works. Adult-use marijuana laws create jobs, generate tax revenue, and protect consumers while taking the marijuana market out of the hands of criminals.”

The new poll results are based on telephone interviews conducted October 5-11 with a random sample of 1,028 adults in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The survey has margin of error of ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

This piece was originally published by Forbes.

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Tom Angell is the editor of Marijuana Moment. A 20-year veteran in the cannabis law reform movement, he covers the policy and politics of marijuana. Separately, he founded the nonprofit Marijuana Majority. Previously he reported for Marijuana.com and MassRoots, and handled media relations and campaigns for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

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