Datasets Society · not part of the score
Should marijuana be legal? (United States)
Gallup · 1969 to 2023
No country has asked the question for longer. Since 1969 Gallup has asked Americans whether the use of marijuana should be made legal, and the yes answers rose from 12% that year to a record 70% in 2023.[1] The series spans the years of NORML’s founding in 1970, the decriminalisation wave of the 1970s, the first legal shops in Colorado in 2014 and the federal move toward Schedule III.
The opinion gap chart sets public opinion against what the law allowed in each year. For moral views in 25 countries at once, see Pew’s is using marijuana morally wrong?; the United States profile has the history state by state.
- Published by
- Gallup — "Grassroots Support for Legalizing Marijuana Hits Record 70%" (8 November 2023), trend 1969–2023
- File here
- gallup-us-legalization.csv
- See also
- The chart · The files and their checksums
- of 220 places covered
- 1
- years in the file
- 1969–2023
- places with several years
- 1
Should marijuana be legal? (United States), on the map
The places the dataset covers. Select a country for its profile.
Gallup poll of 2023–10–02
Country by country
Each place's latest figure, as on its profile. Select a heading to sort.
| Further figures | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| United StatesNorth America | 70%say it should be legal | Gallup poll of 2023–10–02 | 2023 |
What is counted, and how the file was made
The per cent of American adults who answer yes to "Do you think the use of marijuana should be made legal, or not?", in every Gallup poll that asked it from 1969 to 2023. Two polls were taken in 2019.
Read on 22 October 2026 from the data table behind the trend chart of Gallup's article and written here unchanged, with the date of each poll.
The file belongs to Gallup and keeps its terms; cite the publisher when you use it.