The use and ownership of marijuana is unlawful beneath U.S. federal regulation, however about three-quarters of states have legalized the drug for clinical or leisure functions. The converting felony panorama has coincided with a decades-long upward thrust in public enhance for legalization, which a majority of American citizens now desire.
Listed here are 9 details about American citizens’ perspectives of and studies with marijuana, according to Pew Analysis Heart surveys and different resources.
As extra states legalize marijuana, Pew Analysis Heart checked out American citizens’ evaluations on legalization and the way those perspectives have modified through the years.
Knowledge comes from surveys by means of the Heart, Gallup, and the 2022 Nationwide Survey on Drug Use and Well being from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Services and products Management. Details about the jurisdictions the place marijuana is felony on the state point comes from the Nationwide Group for the Reform of Marijuana Regulations.
Extra details about the Heart surveys cited within the research, together with the questions requested and their methodologies, will also be discovered on the hyperlinks within the textual content.
Round nine-in-ten American citizens say marijuana will have to be felony for clinical or leisure use, consistent with a January 2024 Pew Analysis Heart survey. An vast majority of U.S. adults (88%) say both that marijuana will have to be felony for clinical use solely (32%) or that it will have to be felony for clinical and leisure use (57%). Simply 11% say the drug will have to no longer be felony in any shape. Those perspectives have held fairly secure over the last 5 years.
Perspectives on marijuana legalization range broadly by means of age, political celebration, and race and ethnicity, the January survey presentations.
Whilst small stocks throughout demographic teams say marijuana will have to no longer be felony in any respect, the ones least more likely to desire it for each clinical and leisure use come with:
- Older adults: 31% of adults ages 75 and older enhance marijuana legalization for clinical and leisure functions, when put next with part of the ones ages 65 to 74, the following youngest age class. In contrast, 71% of adults beneath 30 enhance legalization for each makes use of.
- Republicans and GOP-leaning independents: 42% of Republicans desire legalizing marijuana for each makes use of, when put next with 72% of Democrats and Democratic leaners. Ideological variations exist as smartly: Inside each events, those that are extra conservative are much less more likely to enhance legalization.
- Hispanic and Asian American citizens: 45% in each and every crew enhance legalizing the drug for clinical and leisure use. Greater stocks of Black (65%) and White (59%) adults dangle this view.
Make stronger for marijuana legalization has higher dramatically over the past 20 years. Along with asking in particular about clinical and leisure use of the drug, each the Heart and Gallup have requested American citizens about legalizing marijuana use in a normal approach. Gallup requested this query maximum just lately, in 2023. That yr, 70% of adults expressed enhance for legalization, greater than double the proportion who mentioned they appreciated it in 2000.
Part of U.S. adults (50.3%) say they’ve ever used marijuana, consistent with the 2022 Nationwide Survey on Drug Use and Well being. That may be a smaller proportion than the 84.1% who say they’ve ever ate up alcohol and the 64.8% who’ve ever used tobacco merchandise or vaped nicotine.
Whilst many American citizens say they’ve used marijuana of their lifetime, some distance fewer are present customers, consistent with the similar survey. In 2022, 23.0% of adults mentioned that they had used the drug previously yr, whilst 15.9% mentioned that they had used it previously month.
Whilst many American citizens say legalizing leisure marijuana has financial and prison justice advantages, perspectives on those and different affects range, the Heart’s January survey presentations.
- Financial advantages: About part of adults (52%) say that legalizing leisure marijuana is excellent for native economies, whilst 17% say it’s unhealthy. Some other 29% say it has no affect.
- Prison justice gadget equity: 42% of American citizens say legalizing marijuana for leisure use makes the prison justice gadget fairer, when put next with 18% who say it makes the gadget much less honest. About four-in-ten (38%) say it has no affect.
- Use of different medication: 27% say this coverage decreases using different medication like heroin, fentanyl and cocaine, and 29% say it will increase it. However the biggest proportion (42%) say it has no impact on different drug use.
- Neighborhood protection: 21% say leisure legalization makes communities more secure and 34% say it makes them much less secure. Some other 44% say it doesn’t affect protection.
Democrats and adults beneath 50 are much more likely than Republicans and the ones in older age teams to mention legalizing marijuana has certain affects in each and every of those spaces.
Maximum American citizens enhance easing consequences for other folks with marijuana convictions, an October 2021 Heart survey discovered. Two-thirds of adults say they desire freeing other folks from jail who’re being held for marijuana-related offenses solely, together with 41% who strongly desire this. And 61% enhance eliminating or expunging marijuana-related offenses from other folks’s prison data.
More youthful adults, Democrats and Black American citizens are particularly more likely to enhance those adjustments. For example, 74% of Black adults desire freeing other folks from jail who’re being held just for marijuana-related offenses, and simply as many desire eliminating or expunging marijuana-related offenses from prison data.
Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have legalized small quantities of marijuana for each clinical and leisure use as of March 2024, consistent with the Nationwide Group for the Reform of Marijuana Regulations (NORML), an advocacy crew that tracks state-level regulation at the factor. Some other 14 states have legalized the drug for clinical use solely.
Of the remainder 12 states, all permit restricted get right of entry to to merchandise equivalent to CBD oil that include little to no THC – the principle psychoactive substance in hashish. And 26 states general have a minimum of partly decriminalized leisure marijuana use, as has the District of Columbia.
Along with 24 states and D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands have legalized marijuana for clinical and leisure use.
Greater than part of American citizens (54%) are living in a state the place each leisure and clinical marijuana are felony, and 74% are living in a state the place it’s felony both for each functions or clinical use solely, consistent with a February Heart research of information from the Census Bureau and different out of doors resources. This research checked out state-level regulation in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
In 2012, Colorado and Washington become the primary states to go regulation legalizing leisure marijuana.
About eight-in-ten American citizens (79%) are living in a county with a minimum of one hashish dispensary, consistent with the February research. There are just about 15,000 marijuana dispensaries national, and 76% are in states (together with D.C.) the place leisure use is felony. Some other 23% are in clinical marijuana-only states, and 1% are in states that experience made felony allowances for low-percentage THC or CBD-only merchandise.
The states with the biggest collection of dispensaries come with California, Oklahoma, Florida, Colorado and Michigan.
Notice: That is an replace of a put up at the start printed April 26, 2021, and up to date April 13, 2023.
