According to a recent YouGov poll, the majority of US adult believe that recreational marijuana should become legal. Cannabis has valid medical applications and they approve its classification into a more restrictive category.
The survey involved 31,080 US Adults on December 22,2025. It was shortly after US president Donald Trump’s Executive Order to move cannabis from Schedule I into a Schedule III category.
Schedule I on the Controlled Substances List was created to limit drugs without a medical purpose and with a very high potential of abuse. heroin. Schedule III drugs such as ketamine and testosterone, and codeine, have medical applications that are generally recognized and have “intermediate potential for abuse”.
Then, you can get started. recent YouGov pollThree questions related to each other were asked.
It was a simple question: “Does recreational use of cannabis in the United States need to be legalized or not?”
You can find the answers:
- Yes, the law should be changed: 54%
- It should not become legal: 27%
- Not sure: 19%
A similar question was asked in 2024In general, 62% of this group said “Yes, it should be legal.” A total of 62% agreed that it should be legal.
You were asked: “Does marijuana have legitimate medical benefits?”
Responses:
- Definitely: 43%
- Probably: 33%
- Most likely not: 8
- Absolutely not: 5%
- Not sure: 11%
The same 2024 survey mentioned above indicated 76% said ‘yes’.
Third question: Do you agree or disagree with the government’s reclassification of marijuana to a more permissive category which allows research into its possible medicinal uses?
Responses:
- Strongly approved: 42%
- Somewhat approved: 28%
- 8% are somewhat unapprove
- Not sure: 14%
The breakdown of different aspects, such as gender, region, age, race and political affiliation can be found in the full survey results.
While it appears it will be President Trump that will make rescheduling happen — although it must pass muster during the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) formal rule-making process — it was his predecessor President Joe Biden who got the ball rolling.
Biden announced that he would ask the Secretary of Health and Human Services and Attorney General in October 2022 to begin a review process on how marijuana was classified under federal law. A poll conducted shortly after found that 72% of respondents were in favor of changing the federal classification for marijuana.