With news of the NY State medical-weed legalization push once again upon us, a new poll says that for the first time ever, the majority of Americans believe marijuana should be legalized.
The poll, conducted by the Pew Research Center last month, found that 52 percent of adults in this country are pro-legalization, a marked difference from the 41 percent who were in favor of pot legalization in 2010. And more of these pro-respondents are older than they've been in previous years, with 50 percent of Baby Boomers voting for legalization as opposed to 17 percent in 1990 (65 percent of Americans born since 1980 are pro-legalization, which is probably not a super surprising statistic).
Some of these pro-votes might be because of the federal government's spectacularly expensive War on Drugs, with 72 percent of respondents saying the feds' drug-fighting ways "cost more than they are worth." And some of them might be because, well, most people have smoked weed at some point or another, and they didn't all burst into flames or become evil baby-killing crack demons. Almost half of all Americans say they've tried marijuana, up from 38 percent ten years ago. And only a third of individuals surveyed say they think marijuana usage is "morally wrong," down from about 50 percent of respondents back in 2006.
Meanwhile, though millennials are more or less overwhelmingly pro-pot legalization, Gen Xers are slightly more conservative, with only 54 percent leaning towards legalized weed.
