Poll: 41 Percent Support Pot Legalization
Updated 5:30 p.m. ET
A CBS News Poll released today finds that 41 percent of Americans think the use of marijuana should be made legal. Fifty-two percent disagree.
The percentage supporting legalization has varied a bit recently. In March of this year 31 percent favored legalization but the number was higher in January at 41 percent, matching what it is now.
Thirty years ago just 27 percent thought the use of marijuana should be made legal.
Demographically, slim majorities of Americans under age 35 and liberals favor legalizing marijuana. By contrast, older people and conservatives are some of the least likely groups to back legalization. Men are a bit more likely than women to say using marijuana should be made legal.
Geographical region also impacts opinions. Opposition to legalizing marijuana is greatest in the South, while over four in 10 of those living in other areas of the country support legalization.
Forty-six percent of those residing in the west favor legalizing marijuana (the highest of any region), but forty-eight are opposed to the idea.
Read the complete poll (PDF)
CBSNews.com Special Report: Marijuana Nation: The New War Over Weed
America's Love-Hate History with Pot
This poll was conducted among a random sample of 944 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone July 9-12, 2009. Phone numbers were dialed from RDD samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.
This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.
(CBS)
The percentage supporting legalization has varied a bit recently. In March of this year 31 percent favored legalization but the number was higher in January at 41 percent, matching what it is now.
Thirty years ago just 27 percent thought the use of marijuana should be made legal.
Demographically, slim majorities of Americans under age 35 and liberals favor legalizing marijuana. By contrast, older people and conservatives are some of the least likely groups to back legalization. Men are a bit more likely than women to say using marijuana should be made legal.
Geographical region also impacts opinions. Opposition to legalizing marijuana is greatest in the South, while over four in 10 of those living in other areas of the country support legalization.
Forty-six percent of those residing in the west favor legalizing marijuana (the highest of any region), but forty-eight are opposed to the idea.
Results By Demographic
| Yes | No | Don't Know | |
| Total | 41% | 52% | 7% |
| Men | 44% | 51% | 5% |
| Women | 39% | 53% | 8% |
| Under Age 35 | 52% | 38% | 10% |
| Age 35 and Over | 36% | 59% | 5% |
| Northeast | 44% | 48% | 8% |
| Midwest | 43% | 49% | 8% |
| South | 35% | 59% | 6% |
| West | 46% | 48% | 6% |
| Liberal | 55% | 35% | 10% |
| Moderate | 41% | 52% | 7% |
| Conservative | 33% | 64% | 3% |
Read the complete poll (PDF)
CBSNews.com Special Report: Marijuana Nation: The New War Over Weed
America's Love-Hate History with Pot
This poll was conducted among a random sample of 944 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone July 9-12, 2009. Phone numbers were dialed from RDD samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.
This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.
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See all 80 CommentsTake a look at pharmaceutical drugs. Billions of dollars are paid by the companies to the government and to the FDA to pass there products on to the public without proper research, inspection and or care. Nobody wants to talk about the millions of pill heads out there robbing, killing and hurting the innocent. I always get into debates about this with people and they will stand toe to toe with me for a minute until I bring up their "drug of choice", then it's different. I just feel that a lot of facts are not brought up because so much money has already been invested into these "legal" drugs and they know that the legalization will be counter-productive to the already invested "happiness in pill form". I prefer to smoke a joint than to take a pill for anxiety, sleep deprevation, migraines, up-set stomache and joint pain(just to name a few), and without the worry of kidney failure or strong addiction.
Marijuana has been labeled a "gateway" drug, people control their own actions and choices. Just because I smoked pot, doesn't make me run out and shove a needle in my arm or snort a powder up my nose. When I smoke my vision seems to be more intuned, I'm relaxed, I play guitar or go workout. Now I'm not saying that everyone should smoke marijuana, because some people take it in the wrong text and go overboard with it. There are alcoholics out there, pill heads and people that smoke 2 packs of cigs a day.
So in conclusion, I am pro-legalization,taxation and decriminalization of the marijuana plant. It can be regulated. Now black market selling of the plant without permits and such should still be a punishable offense. I feel cops should be out there hunting down rapists, murders and such. Not people with a couple of grams.Save the room in the jails for the bad guys.
Thanks for reading,
Josh
To be honest, when I read about traffic deaths, I never read "marijuana may had been a factor".
If there was a significant problem, you'd be sure you'd here about it here.
These polls are stilted.
944 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone does not represent 306,908,238 Americans. Also they don't represent the Great Golden State of California who's people are more educated, brighter, creative, racially diverse and open to new ways of thinking than any other place on planet earth. It's no wonder that CBS has been losing viewer ship for many years they seem to have remained in an era of Harry Anslinger and box car racing wow! Hey here's a suggestion try reinventing CBS into the 21century then maybe you won't see a steady trend of reverse revenue streams.
Just as a side note here, I have to sit back and laugh about this one because I have been asking non-smokers (not tokers) for years, "where are you going to get all that tax revenue when you finally badger all the smokers into quitting?" Looks like California is the first one to face the hard ugly truth that they did all this to themselves.
ahhh California. Home of all the beautiful people~
Ask your governor why marijuana is illegal, and more than likely he will say that it either gives the wrong message to our youth or the representatives of the appropriate state agencies and law enforcement officials do not care for it because it takes away... business?
To all politicians and marijuana prohibitionists... keep chasing that pot of gold at the end of the drug rainbow.
You'll never catch it.
Get real folks. Legalizing it for taxation isn't going to work. There are still going to be alllllll those dealers out there that WILL fill the prescription cheaper than Walmart ever will, dealers that WILL give you top notch, Grade A at a fraction of Uncle Sam's price and there will ALWAYS be those good for nothing low lifes out there that won't be able to afford it in a controlled environment so home grown will still be the bargain shoppers best bet.
And then you have the problem of figuring out what pot will go with what tax... Acapulco Gold with a $50 tax... but what about Happy Haze, or Black Widow or any of the other 300+ types of pot and the even bigger problem of the arrest and conviction of all those out there driving around stoned because "now it IS legal", the problem the families will have burying more of their loved ones because some idiot was stoned and tried to drive home...
Get real. This is the most ridiculous debate I have ever encountered.
OR could this be another ploy of the federal government? Legalize pot, then hash, then coke, then all the other loser menu items out there. Get the ENTIRE country addicted to it, just like the cigarette companies did with smokers and then the government can tax the SH** out of all the non-smokers for a change.
But- warning to any and all of my employees: I will still enforce drug screening and I will STILL fire anyone on the spot for popping positive...
Good luck California!
100 years ago when everything was legal, we had the same percentage of addiction in society as we have today. If cigarettes and alcohol are legal, so should be coke and heroine. They're just as toxic and addictive. BTW, as espresso is coffee, hash is pot. Both are about as addictive as the other. Look it up.
Keeping marijuana illegal does not benefit our children. It benefits special interest groups: the alcoholic beverage industry, the prison industry, police departments and their suppliers, government bureaucrats, and drug cartels.
It is immoral to prevent responsible adults from choosing to use a less harmful substance in place of alcohol. If pot were legalized, alcohol use would decrease along with its social costs.
Tell your legislators to support California Assembly Bill 390: <a href="http://yes390.org"> <b> yes390.org </b> </a>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdONwv51Wm0
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