Americans’ Changing Views on Marijuana Legalization: Nine Facts Based on Pew Research Center Surveys
On April 20, 2023, a group of people gathered at Washington Square Park in New York City to smell a cannabis plant, despite the fact that the use and possession of marijuana is illegal under U.S. federal law. This event highlights the changing attitudes towards marijuana in the United States, where about three-quarters of states have legalized the drug for medical or recreational purposes.
According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, around nine-in-ten Americans believe that marijuana should be legal for medical or recreational use. The survey found that an overwhelming majority of U.S. adults support some form of legalization, with only 11% saying the drug should not be legal in any form.
Views on marijuana legalization vary widely by age, political party, and race and ethnicity. Older adults, Republicans, and Hispanic and Asian Americans are less likely to support legalization for both medical and recreational use compared to younger adults, Democrats, and Black and White Americans.
Support for marijuana legalization has increased dramatically over the last two decades, with 70% of adults expressing support for legalization in 2023, more than double the share who favored it in 2000. Additionally, half of U.S. adults say they have ever used marijuana, with 23% reporting use in the past year and 15.9% in the past month.
While many Americans believe that legalizing recreational marijuana has economic and criminal justice benefits, views on these impacts vary. About half of adults say that legalizing recreational marijuana is good for local economies, while 42% believe it makes the criminal justice system fairer.
Most Americans also support easing penalties for people with marijuana convictions, with two-thirds of adults favoring releasing people from prison for marijuana-related offenses and 61% supporting removing or expunging marijuana-related offenses from criminal records.
As of March 2024, 24 states and the District of Columbia have legalized small amounts of marijuana for both medical and recreational use, with another 14 states legalizing the drug for medical use only. More than half of Americans live in a state where both recreational and medical marijuana are legal, and 79% live in a county with at least one cannabis dispensary.
The changing legal landscape and public attitudes towards marijuana in the United States continue to evolve, with a majority of Americans now living in states where some form of marijuana use is legal.