Majority Of Americans Still Back Marijuana Legalization

A majority of Americans remain in favor of legalizing marijuana, according
to a new poll from Gallup. But support has seen a slight dip since last
year—a trend that’s been “driven by Republicans” who are turning against
the reform, the organization found.

Overall, 64 percent of Americans now back ending cannabis prohibition.
That’s 4 percentage points lower than Gallup’s 2024 results.

Over the past year, Republican support for legalization fell 13 percentage
points—down to 40 percent—which is “the lowest level of support for
legalization among this group in a decade,” Gallup said on Wednesday.

An overwhelmingly majority of Democrats (85 percent) and independents (66
percent) continue to favor legalization “at similar rates to what Gallup
has recorded in recent years,” the firm’s analysis said. What accounts for
the abrupt shift among GOP respondents is unclear, but other questions in
the broader survey may provide some clues.

Specifically, as the Trump administration has pushed an aggressive
anti-drug campaign—which has involved extrajudicial killings of foreign
nationals allegedly transporting controlled substances via boats—there’s
been a major change in public perceptions of the country’s success in
addressing the illicit drug crisis.

Via Gallup.

“The decline in support for legal marijuana is driven by Republicans, whose
support has fallen 13 points over the past year.”

As Gallup noted, “this mainly reflects improved Republican perceptions
under Trump and his aggressive actions to limit the entry of drugs into the
U.S.”

“The White House has used the issue as justification for actions in various
international dealings since Trump’s inauguration—from tariffs to military
strikes to foreign aid—and this seems to be resonating with the president’s
base, even though the impact of these actions on drug imports, sales and
addiction in the U.S. is unclear so far,” the polling organization said.

“While Republicans are heartened by this perceived progress, many in the
party have backed away from supporting legalizing marijuana,” the survey
said. “After climbing in the 2010s, Republican support for legalization had
stalled at around 50 percent before retreating sharply this year—another
policy area in which there has been a reversal of Republicans’ recent
movement toward more progressive attitudes.”

How closely linked these issues are is uncertain, especially given the fact
that President Donald Trump endorsed marijuana rescheduling, industry
banking access and a Florida adult-use legalization initiative on the
campaign trial. But since taking office, the president has been less clear
about his position.

While he reiterated in late August that he intends to make a rescheduling
decision imminently and he’s heard “some pretty good things” about medical
cannabis, “for other things, I’ve heard some pretty bad things.”

Gallup’s Justin McCarthy told Marijuana Moment that “the pullback in
support for legalization of marijuana among Republicans is similar to the
decrease in support for same-sex marriage among this group in recent years.”

“Both trends have moved in a similar direction over time—and though
Republicans have been the least supportive on legalization on both issues,
their support had grown over time before the most recent measurements,” he
said. “Gallup’s continued tracking of these trends will give us a clearer
picture of where this group is heading on both issues.”

The decline in support for cannabis legalization also comes amid an ongoing
debate over intoxicating hemp products that have grabbed headlines in
states and at the federal level over the past year, with certain GOP
lawmakers pushing for bans on hemp containing THC.

Via Gallup.

The Gallup survey involved interviews with 1,000 American adults from
October 1-16, with a +/- 4 percentage point margin of error.

Regardless of public opinion on the policy of legalization, Gallup also
released data late last year showing that 15 percent of U.S. adults
reported that they smoke cannabis, which is more than the 11 percent of who
told the polling firm that they have smoked any cigarettes in the past week.

Rates of marijuana use are nearly the same in states that have legalized
versus those that maintain prohibition, which suggests that
“criminalization does little to curtail its use,” another Gallup survey
found last year.

With the majority of states now having legalized marijuana for medical or
recreational use, another poll from NBC News and SurveyMonkey signals that
cannabis’s normalization has left many people feeling neutral about how the
policy impacts society—though more say the reform has been “good” than
believe it has been “bad.”


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These are some the latest in a series of polls investigating public opinion
on cannabis reform.

For example, recently released polling data from the Pew Research Center
found that an overwhelming majority of Americans—nearly nine in 10—support
legalizing marijuana in some form.

Another recent survey from the Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education,
and Regulation (CPEAR), which was conducted by the firm Forbes Tate
Partners, showed that seven in 10 American voters want to see the end of
federal marijuana prohibition—and nearly half say they’d view the Trump
administration more favorably if it took action on the issue.

A poll released in June that Marijuana Moment partnered on with the
cannabis telehealth platform NuggMD showed that a majority of marijuana
consumers disapprove of the Trump administration’s actions on cannabis
policy to date, but there’s also a significant willingness among users to
shift their position if the federal government opts to reschedule or
legalize marijuana.

Earlier this year, meanwhile, a firm associated with Trump—Fabrizio, Lee &
Associates—also polled Americans on a series of broader marijuana policy
issues. Notably, it found that a majority of Republicans back cannabis
rescheduling—and, notably, they’re even more supportive of allowing states
to legalize marijuana without federal interference compared to the average
voter.

*Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.*

The post Majority Of Americans Still Back Marijuana Legalization—Despite
Big Drop In Republican Support Under Trump, Gallup Poll Shows appeared
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