Gallup’s latest poll shows that a majority still supports legalizing marijuana. But support has seen a slight dip since last year—a trend that’s been “driven by Republicans” who are turning against the reform, the organization found.
64 percent of Americans are now in favor of ending marijuana prohibition. This is 4 points less than Gallup 2024.
Over the past year, Republican support for legalization fell 13 percentage points—down to 40 percent—which is “the lowest level of support for legalization among this group in a decade,” Gallup said on Wednesday.
According to the analysis, a large majority of Democrats (85%) and independents (66%) still support legalization at rates “similar to Gallup’s recent findings.” It is not clear what caused the sudden shift in attitudes among GOP respondents, although other questions from the larger survey could provide clues.
Specifically, as the Trump administration has pushed an aggressive anti-drug campaign—which has involved extrajudicial killings of foreign nationals allegedly transporting controlled substances via boats—there’s been a major change in public perceptions of the country’s success in addressing the illicit drug crisis.
Gallup.
“The Republican Party is responsible for the decline in public support of legalized marijuana. Their support has dropped 13 points within the last 12 months.”
Gallup notes that this is due to the fact that Republicans have a more positive perception of Trump, and Trump has taken aggressive measures to reduce the amount of illegal drugs entering the U.S.
“The White House has used the issue as justification for actions in various international dealings since Trump’s inauguration—from tariffs to military strikes to foreign aid—and this seems to be resonating with the president’s base, even though the impact of these actions on drug imports, sales and addiction in the U.S. is unclear so far,” the polling organization said.
The survey found that while Republicans were encouraged by the perceived progress in legalizing marijuana, some Republicans had backed off. “After climbing in the 2010s, Republican support for legalization had stalled at around 50 percent before retreating sharply this year—another policy area in which there has been a reversal of Republicans’ recent movement toward more progressive attitudes.”
It is unclear how closely these issues are linked, particularly given that Donald Trump supported marijuana rescheduling on his campaign trail, as well as industry banking and an adult-use initiative in Florida. Since taking office, however, President Trump has become less explicit about his views.
In late August, he said he would make a decision on rescheduling imminently. He’d heard “some really good things,” about medical marijuana, but “other things I’ve also heard pretty bad.”
Justin McCarthy, a Gallup representative, told MEDCAN24 “the decline in Republican support for the legalization of pot is similar to that seen in this group’s support in recent times for same-sex relationships.”
“Both trends have moved in a similar direction over time—and though Republicans have been the least supportive on legalization on both issues, their support had grown over time before the most recent measurements,” he said. Gallup will continue to track these trends, which should give a better picture on where the group’s heading is.
A decline in the support for legalizing cannabis also coincides with a debate on intoxicating hemp that has garnered headlines at both state and federal level in the past year. Some GOP legislators are pushing to ban hemp products containing THC.
Gallup.
Gallup interviewed 1,000 American adults between October 1 and 16, with an error margin of +/-4 percentage points.
Regardless of public opinion on the policy of legalization, Gallup also released data late last year showing that 15 percent of U.S. adults reported that they smoke cannabis, which is more than the 11 percent of who told the polling firm that they have smoked any cigarettes in the past week.
The rates of marijuana consumption are virtually the same between states which have legalized and those that still maintain prohibition. Gallup’s survey last year found that this suggests “criminalization has little effect on its use.”
With the majority of states now having legalized marijuana for medical or recreational use, another poll from NBC News and SurveyMonkey signals that cannabis’s normalization has left many people feeling neutral about how the policy impacts society—though more say the reform has been “good” than believe it has been “bad.”
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Here are the most recent in a long line of surveys that have been conducted to investigate public opinion about cannabis reform.
For example, recently released polling data from the Pew Research Center found that an overwhelming majority of Americans—nearly nine in 10—support legalizing marijuana in some form.
Another recent survey from the Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education, and Regulation (CPEAR), which was conducted by the firm Forbes Tate Partners, showed that seven in 10 American voters want to see the end of federal marijuana prohibition—and nearly half say they’d view the Trump administration more favorably if it took action on the issue.
A poll released in June that MEDCAN24 partnered on with the cannabis telehealth platform NuggMD showed that a majority of marijuana consumers disapprove of the Trump administration’s actions on cannabis policy to date, but there’s also a significant willingness among users to shift their position if the federal government opts to reschedule or legalize marijuana.
Earlier this year, meanwhile, a firm associated with Trump—Fabrizio, Lee & Associates—also polled Americans on a series of broader marijuana policy issues. Notably, it found that a majority of Republicans back cannabis rescheduling—and, notably, they’re even more supportive of allowing states to legalize marijuana without federal interference compared to the average voter.
Philip Steffan is the photographer.
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