The Gallup poll results showed that age and religiosity affect how likely one is to use marijuana.
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The more interesting thing is that the number of young adults that have ever tried marijuana is lower than the number of seniors who did so.
Gallup reports consistent majority support nationwide for marijuana legalization since 2013, and it found that residents in the West, where four states have already legalized marijuana, were significantly more likely to report being regular users.
Half of the states have passed some type of medical marijuana law, and another four will vote on that in November (Arkansas, Florida, Montana, Missouri). Lifetime use was most common among respondents in between, about half of whom said they had tried marijuana. That works out to more than 33 million adult marijuana users in the U.S. If America’s marijuana users resided in one state, it would be bigger than Texas and second only to California in population. Meanwhile, support for legalizing marijuana rose from 12 percent in 1969 to 58 percent past year. Certain legislators have called for restrictions on marijuana to be loosened at the federal level use or to legalize it completely.
Notably, the share of Gallup respondents who say they have ever tried marijuana rose less dramatically (from 38 percent in 2013 to 43 percent in 2016) than the share who say they “smoke marijuana” now, a touchier question.
Another trend in marijuana use is one geographical.
The pattern by age in ever having used marijuana are does not show the same skew toward the young; instead, it peaks among the middle-aged.
Almost half of those surveyed, 43%, admit to having tried marijuana.
On the other hand, the respondents who said they went to church every week were less likely to smoke pot. But this difference in their rates of experimentation could also reflect generational cultures and attitudes toward marijuana that have shifted over time. Americans who live in households that make less than $30,000 are a bit more likely to report now using it, however, at 14%. Meanwhile, Americans who live in the West are a bit more likely to report now using (14%) or having tried (47%) pot. Recreational use could become legal in as many as nine states (up from only four today), and medicinal use could become legal in an additional four states.
At this moment, recreational marijuana is legal in Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Colorado and the District of Columbia, and medical marijuana is legal in half of the U.S. states.
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Recreational marijuana is legal in Colorado, Oregon, Alaska and Washington state. The negative effects could keep many Americans from regularly using or even trying marijuana.
