Poll: Most Americans Support Legalizing Marijuana, Expunging Records

A poll by Quinnipiac University showed that a majority of Americans support legalizing marijuana as well as expunging the records of low-level marijuana crimes. Legalization enjoys bipartisan support; however, the poll found that a majority of Republicans still oppose legalization. Medical marijuana has near unanimous support. Millennials and Baby Boomers are on opposite sides of the issue, as the former is firmly in support of legalization while the latter still leans opposed.

America Wants Legal Marijuana and Records Expunged

The majority of Americans want legal weed and records wiped clean for past marijuana convictions.

A poll by Quinnipiac University of 1,120 participants released on Wednesday showed that 60 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana (33 percent opposed). More Americans (63 percent) believe criminal records for possessing or consuming cannabis should be cleared (29 percent opposed).

Support for medical marijuana prescribed by doctors was at 93 percent with 5 percent opposed.

Marijuana legalization is primarily strong among Democrats (73 percent support) and Independents (64 percent support). Among Republicans, the majority are still opposed to both adult-use legalization (40 – 52 percent) and expunging records (45 – 47 percent).

A poll by Gallup in October 2018 was the first to show a Republican majority in support of legalizing marijuana; however, this poll indicates there may be a way to go until this is the reality.

The poll also took into account generational perspectives on marijuana.

Millennials shared overwhelming support for legalizing cannabis (85 percent) while Baby Boomers still side with prohibition (44 – 49 percent).

“The baby boomers say no to the drug that helped define an era, while the millennials say bring it on,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. “In between are enough voters to rubber stamp legalizing marijuana for recreation as well as medical reasons.”

Those “in between” were age groups 35 – 49 years old and 50 – 64 years old. They both expressed support with percentages of 63 – 30 and 59 – 35, respectively.

The total number for marijuana legalization (60 percent) is three percent lower than last year’s Quinnipiac poll, but the number of those opposed remained the same as the 2018 results.

Support for medical marijuana did not change from last year.

The margin of error for the poll was +/- 3.4 percentage points.

h/t Marijuana Moment