There continues to be a substantial push toward the legalization of marijuana in the United States. Across demographic groups, all but one generation of Americans support the legalization of cannabis, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday.
The only group not ready to let everyone legally light up? Adults over 65 years of age. Only 44% of that age group said they would support legalization, while 49% were against it. “The baby boomers say no to the drug that helped define an era, while the millennials say bring it on,” noted Tim Malloy, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. Indeed, 85% of voters ages 18 to 34 years old said they were in favor of legalized weed, and among older millennials and Gen X voters surveyed, ages 35 to 49, 63% were also in favor of legal pot.
The survey also found that a whopping 93% of Americans support the use of medical marijuana if prescribed by a physician.
Politicians are also increasingly supportive of—and some are even leading—efforts to remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances and clear the records of those with cannabis-related criminal convictions. The most prominent example might be New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, who announced in February that he is running in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. Booker also recently reintroduced the Marijuana Justice Act, which would make weed legal nationwide, as well as retroactively expunge the criminal records of those convicted on marijuana-related charges.
