NORML's Chart of Legalization Polls - data compiled by Russ Belville from various organizations asking a form of the question "Should marijuana be legalized in America?" (click graphic for full-sized version)
A Gallup Poll released today showed that, for the first time in its 42-year history of asking the question, a majority of Americans believe marijuana should be legalized nationwide.
Gallup reports that the 50% nationwide support for legalization also represents the first time support has outweighed opposition. Only 46% of Americans believe marijuana should remain criminalized, with 4% undecided.
Support for marijuana legalization remains greatest in the Western states (55%) and majorities support legalization in the Midwest (54%) and East (51%). Only voters in the South still oppose marijuana legalization (44%). Men still support legalization at a much greater rate than women (55% vs. 46%).
Support is also greatest among younger Americans (62%), Democrats (57%), and liberals (69%). However, support for legalization has increased even in demographics generally opposed to legalization. Compared to Gallup’s poll last year, support increased 4% points in the South, 12% points in the Midwest, and 6% points among 50-64, but fell 1% among 65+. Support rose 6% points among Republicans, and 4% points among conservatives. Marijuana legalization is becoming more popular with just about everyone.
Gallup Polls Support and Opposition to Marijuana Legalization 1969-2011
One third of jurisdictions in the United States – 16 states plus District of Columbia for 17 out of 51 – exempt medical use of cannabis from criminal prosecution. Yet the federal government has initiated a new full-court press against these jurisdictions in an attempt to kill the burgeoning medical marijuana industry. This despite Gallup’s most recent poll to ask about legalizing medical marijuana (in 2003) showing 75% support nationwide.
One might think this escalation in the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs is designed to hamstring the state initiatives to legalize marijuana in 2012 by cutting the purse strings of the movement. When three-quarters of Americans support legalizing medical cannabis use, half support outright legalization of all cannabis use, and one-third of the states are openly defying federal prohibition, federal retribution in service of the status quo is inevitable.
The question is: what will you do to push the issue over the tipping point? Register to vote? Contact your legislators? Join a local NORML chapter? Contribute to National NORML? Get educated on the issues? Join together with like-minded women? Reach out to seniors? Follow the latest marijuana news? Learn from the experts? These latest federal actions should show you that they aren’t going to legalize marijuana any time soon – it’s up to you to act now.
Contact your elected representatives and urge them to 'Stop Arresting Marijuana Smokers'. 
I voted for, Obama because i thought he would move favorably toward legalization of weed . He’s a liar and Romney is an obvious ignoramus when it comes to weed . Well, this will be the first time that i won’t vote for either presidential candidate that is pushed down our throats . I’m voting for Gary or Ron this fall regardless if it means ” throwing away my vote ” . Won’t you do the same…………
[...] on the president to explain a policy that is no longer supported by a majority of Americans. Half of this country supports outright legalization of marijuana and three-quarters think marijuana punishments, if any, should be no more than ticketable offenses, [...]
[...] on the president to explain a policy that is no longer supported by a majority of Americans. Half of this country supports outright legalization of marijuana and three-quarters think marijuana punishments, if any, should be no more than ticketable offenses, [...]
[...] on the president to explain a policy that is no longer supported by a majority of Americans. Half of this country supports outright legalization of marijuana and three-quarters think marijuana punishments, if any, should be no more than ticketable offenses, [...]
[...] on the president to explain a policy that is no longer supported by a majority of Americans. Half of this country supports outright legalization of marijuana and three-quarters think marijuana punishments, if any, should be no more than ticketable offenses, [...]
[...] on the president to explain a policy that is no longer supported by a majority of Americans. Half of this country supports outright legalization of marijuana and three-quarters think marijuana punishments, if any, should be no more than ticketable offenses, [...]
[...] on the president to explain a policy that is no longer supported by a majority of Americans. Half of this country supports outright legalization of marijuana and three-quarters think marijuana punishments, if any, should be no more than ticketable offenses, [...]
[...] on the president to explain a policy that is no longer supported by a majority of Americans. Half of this country supports outright legalization of marijuana and three-quarters think marijuana punishments, if any, should be no more than ticketable offenses, [...]
[...] on the president to explain a policy that is no longer supported by a majority of Americans. Half of this country supports outright legalization of marijuana and three-quarters think marijuana punishments, if any, should be no more than ticketable offenses, [...]
[...] once again, like the Gallup Poll from last year, more Americans think we should legalize than do not: The latest Rasmussen Reports national [...]
[...] once again, like the Gallup Poll from last year, more Americans think we should legalize than do not: The latest Rasmussen Reports national [...]
[...] 3. The people really, really want to ask the President about the legalization of marijuana that half of them support [...]
[...] safety has us at a place where there are more people who think marijuana is safer than alcohol and ought to be legalized than people who support continuing [...]
[...] safety has us at a place where there are more people who think marijuana is safer than alcohol and ought to be legalized than people who support continuing [...]
Jesus said to do unto others as we would have them to do unto us. None of us would want our child thrown in jail with the sexual predators over marijuana. None of us would want to see an older family member’s home confiscated and sold by the police for growing a couple of marijuana plants for their aches and pains. It’s time to stop putting our own family members in jail over marijuana.
If ordinary Americans could grow a little marijuana in their own back yards, it would be about as valuable as home-grown tomatoes. Let’s put the criminals out of business and get them out of our neighborhoods. Let’s let ordinary Americans grow a little marijuana in their own back yards.
Here’s one way that IT IS REALLY WORKING: Arresting the criminals and collecting a fee from registered growers (and bringing in thousands of dollars to support the county budget); what a great plan! This is the way to build a better America! http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/2011/07/the-pot-republic-one-sheriffs-quietly-radical-experiment.html
The current proposal before Congress, bill HR 2306, will allow states to decide how they will regulate marijuana. You can email your Congressperson and Senators at http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml to discuss HR 2306.
And a big THANK YOU to the courageous, freedom loving legislators, governors, and countless others who are working so hard to bring this through! You’re doing a great patriotic service for all of America!
Dear Malcolm; You know I’m one of your biggest fans as you comment on both mainstream & alt media…you have the writing skills that English teachers tell their students to emulate. Thanks for many hours calmly directed at critical prose to end the madness.
The news flash is that the WarBama will be visiting Cambodia a couple weeks after the Nov.,4th 2012 election date-win or lose–he’ll attend a US-ASEAN meeting & the scrutiny of every expat living here has already begun…since Ron Paul & Gary Johnson are being hidden from the people & the OWS unlikely to move the body politic, we must take the Gallup poll to heart & continue to speak with our various voices against tyranny.
The illegal drug trade is now estimated to be somewhere in the region of $400 billion a year ( equal to the defense budget ). This “former land of the free” arrests 1.5 million of it’s citizens a year for drug law violations, half for marijuana alone, The majority of the 2.2 million inmates in the USA are incarcerated because of this insane drug war (Prohibition 2) at a staggering cost to all taxpayers and trauma to their families.
Prisons have been filled to capacity. Violent criminals, murderers, rapists and child molesters are released early to create space for these so called drug offenders. Half of court trial time and also a huge chunk of police officers time is pointlessly wasted. Enormous untaxed profits from illegal drugs fund multi-national criminal empires which bribe law enforcement authorities and spread corruption faster than a raging bush fire. These laws take violent criminals and turn them into multi-billionaires whilst corrupting even entire countries such as Columbia, Panama, Mexico and Afghanistan. The extreme violence on and south of the border is drug gangs fighting for turf in this lucrative business. The drug laws are also funding the Taliban whose illegal opium profits allow it to buy weapons and pay it’s fighters more than $300 a month, compared with the $14 paid to an Afghan policemen.
When governments prohibit drugs they effectively and knowingly hand a monopoly on their sale to dangerous criminals and terrorists. Without a legal framework in which to operate, these black-market entities can always be expected to settle their disputes violently, while terrorizing many peaceful and innocent citizens in the process. Were the users of alcohol to blame for the St Valentines massacre in the US in 1929? Of course not! It is just as naive to assume that one can compel all the users of Marijuana or Cocaine to simply quit, as it is to assume that all the users of Alcohol should have stopped drinking after the introduction of alcohol prohibition in 1919.
The definition of insanity is great folly, madness, extreme senselessness, lunacy. Prohibition can be described as being all of the above and may therefor, along with all it’s supporters, be deemed insane.
Each day you remain silent, you help to destroy the Constitution, fill the prisons with our children, and empower terrorists and criminals worldwide while wasting hundreds of billions of your own tax dollars. Prohibition bears many strong and startling similarities to Torquemada’s inquisition, it’s supporters are servants of tyranny and hate who’s sole purpose is to make the rest of us suffer their putrid legacy of incalculable waste and destruction.
Protect our Children; Legalize, Regulate & Tax!