Support for US marijuana legalization at an all-time high, Gallup poll shows

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Seven in 10 Americans support marijuana legalization, according to a new Gallup poll – an all-time high since the Washington DC-based analytics and advisory company began polling on the topic in 1969.

In that first poll, only 12% of respondents supported marijuana reform.

Support for marijuana legalization plateaued at 68% for the past three years.

By contrast, in 2013, more than half of respondents said they supported marijuana legalization.

The steady increase in support for cannabis reform aligns with the growth in self-reported use of marijuana.

Gallup’s annual Consumption Habits survey in July showed that 17% of respondents smoke marijuana – an increase of 10 percentage points since 2013.

With what Gallup calls “broad consensus” for marijuana legalization, all eyes in the United States are watching whether the Drug Enforcement Administration will reschedule marijuana and if Congress will pass the SAFER Banking Act.

In the meantime, individual states continue to pass marijuana reform laws.

On Tuesday, Ohio became the nation’s 24th state to legalize adult-use marijuana.