After Colorado and Washington passed referendums to legalize marijuana, it could soon be a national trend, according to a new public opinion poll that shows the majority of Americans believe making marijuana legal would be the right thing to do. For the first time in four decades of polling on the topic, Pew Research found that a majority of Americans, while only barely, supports legalizing marijuana. That's good news for the smokers out there. The nationwide poll from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press released Thursday found that 52 percent of Americans said marijuana use should be legal while 45 percent said it shouldn't. Pew said support is up a strong 11 percentage points since 2010. While marijuana is illegal in most states and under federal law, a number of states have decriminalized it for medical use or for possession of small quantities. Colorado and Washington state have legalized recreational use of marijuana. Younger Americans — the Millennial Generation — are the most supportive (65 percent), and the oldest Americans like the idea the least (32 percent). Approval of marijuana legalization among baby boomers, the strongest supporters in the 1970s, has bounced back after tumbling to 17 percent in 1990. Half of baby boomers now favor legalization. The Pew survey also found that more Americans say they have tried marijuana – 48 percent, up from 38 percent in 2003 and from 40 percent in 2010. Just over seven in 10 Americans say efforts to enforce marijuana laws “cost more than they are worth." The poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points for the full sample of 1,501 adults surveyed between March 13 and 17. BN
