+

Cookies on the Business Insider India website

Business Insider India has updated its Privacy and Cookie policy. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the better experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we\'ll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the Business Insider India website. However, you can change your cookie setting at any time by clicking on our Cookie Policy at any time. You can also see our Privacy Policy.

Close
HomeQuizzoneWhatsappShare Flash Reads
 

Most Americans favor marijuana legalization - except for Republicans

Oct 13, 2016, 04:03 IST

Over half of US states have enacted laws legalizing some form of marijuana use - either medical or recreational, or both in the cases of Colorado and Washington.

Advertisement

And Americans, as a unified group, favor marijuana legalization.

When asked by Pew Research, "Do you think the use of marijuana should be made legal or not?", a whopping 57% answered yes (while just 37% responded with no).

Complimentary Tech Event
Transform talent with learning that works
Capability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More

Even when you break down Americans by age groups, every demographic from Millennials (18- to 35-year-olds) to Baby Boomers (52- to 70-year-olds) supports legalization.

Only one group opposes legalization - the so-called "Silent" generation (71-88-year-olds) oppose legalization 59% against to 33% in favor.

Advertisement

Things break apart when you start looking at people by political affiliation.

Donald Trump and Hillary ClintonMark Wilson/Getty Images; Justin Sullivan/Getty Images; Samantha Lee/Business Insider.

"Most Republicans (55%) oppose marijuana legalization, while 41% favor it," Pew's latest poll found.

Democrats, overwhelmingly, support legalization - 66% of Democratic respondents said they favor legalization, while just 30% oppose.

Notoriously, neither candidate for president favors marijuana legalization.

Advertisement

Clinton favors the re-classification of marijuana, but she's not in favor of outright legalization for medical or recreational use. As Clinton's website states: "She believes we should use alternatives to incarceration for low-level, nonviolent marijuana users, and she will reschedule marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule II substance."

Trump has publicly supported medical marijuana throughout his campaign, but his policy on marijuana has shifted from one of pro-legalization to something a bit more cautious. Trump explained his approach to marijuana legalization to ABC News' Martha Raddatz in a November 2015 interview:

"It's something that I've always said maybe it has to be looked at because we do such a poor job of policing. We don't want to build walls. We don't want to do anything. And if you're not going to want to do the policing, you're going to have to start thinking about other alternatives. But it's not something that I would want to do."

Regardless of the political demographics tied to marijuana legalization on a nation-wide scale, individual US states are already making moves toward legalization. A whopping nine states will vote this November on initiatives to legalize some form of marijuana use - five of those states are voting on full-on recreational legalization.

NOW WATCH: We went inside the grow facility that makes Colorado's number one marijuana strain

Please enable Javascript to watch this video
Next Article