91% of Americans support the legalization of cannabis for recreational or medical purposes

According to a new poll by the Pew Research Center Published Friday, April 16; 91 % of Americans believe that the cannabis should be legalized for medical or recreational purposes.

Conducted among 5,109 American adults, the survey asked people to choose between three options: cannabis should be legal for medical use only, it should be legal for both recreational and medical use, or it should remain illegal.

60% of respondents said that cannabis should be legal for both medical use and adult use. 31% said it should be legalized for therapeutic purposes only. And only 8% of Americans said that cannabis should continue to be criminalized in general.

NEW: As more states continue to legalize marijuana, an overwhelming majority of U.S. adults (91%) say either that marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use (60%) or that it should be legal for medical use only (31%). https://t.co/inaE5EU09t pic.twitter.com/MBsmCZmkfY

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) April 16, 2021

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An opinion shared by all population groups

A majority of people across all age groups, races, and political affiliations included in the survey said that cannabis should be legal in some form. Democrats and those affiliated with the Democratic Party are most likely to support a policy change for medical and adult use (72 %), compared to 47 % of Republicans and those affiliated with the Republican Party.

Support for the overall reform is lowest among people aged 75 and older, while the majority of people aged 18 to 74 support the proposal for dual legalization.

«While Republicans and Democrats differ greatly on whether marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use, there are also generational divides within each party,» the polling firm notes. «A 63% majority of Republicans aged 18 to 29 supports the legalization of marijuana for recreational and medical purposes, compared to 53% of those aged 30 to 49 and 48% of those aged 50 to 64. However, only a quarter of Republicans aged 65 and older (27%) say marijuana should be legal for both purposes.»

These results were released one day after Quinnipiac University published its own poll, which found that national support for cannabis legalization had reached an all-time high, 69% of Americans who now say they are in favor at the end of Prohibition. This figure also includes a large majority of Republicans (62 %).