With voters in two more states considering marijuana legalization and legal weed on the block in Canada, more than two-thirds of Americans support marijuana legalization, an all-time high according to a Gallup poll released Monday.
It’s the sixth year in a row that support for legal weed has risen, up from 58 percent in 2013. Gallup has been polling about marijuana legalization since 1969, when support was at 12 percent.
“It is time for lawmakers of both parties to en masse acknowledge the data-driven and political realities of legalization,” National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws political director Justin Strekal said in a statement. “It is time to stop ceding control of the marijuana market to untaxed criminal enterprises and implement common-sense, evidence-based regulations governing cannabis’ personal use and licensed production by responsible adults.”
According to the Gallup poll, marijuana legalization has support from all age groups, including 78 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 34 years old. Watch a video at the top of the page to hear one college student’s opinion on legalizing marijuana.
About 65 percent of those between 35 and 54 support legal weed, but the biggest change came among those aged 55 and older, of which 59 percent support marijuana legalization, a nine-point uptick.
According to the poll, 53 percent of Republican voters are in favor of marijuana legalization, despite U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a former Republican senator from Alabama, openly pledging to crack down on marijuana at the federal level.
About 71 percent of independents and 75 percent of Democratic voters want legal weed, according to the poll.
The newest poll data comes just one week after Canada become the second country in the world to legalize marijuana at the federal level. In the United States, nine states have passed laws legalizing weed.
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