The Gist: Despite a changing legal landscape, sentiment around marijuana legalization hasn’t budged.
Take a second and step back in time to 2014. Kim and Kanye got married, Gwyneth and Chris uncoupled, and you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing “Let It Go,” or the new U2 album (but that’s only because Apple forced it on all of us…).
In 2014, we had 2 states with legal recreational marijuana and 23 states (plus D.C.) with legal medical marijuana. We were in the early days of legalization, asking people how they feel about a pathway into full-blown legalization.
Back in 2014, we asked:
Overall, among US adults there was more support than opposition to marijuana legalization. Now, in 2018 with nine states with recreational marijuana and 30 states with medical marijuana, we wanted to see how opinion has changed.
Given the legislation changes we’ve seen, it comes as a surprise that support hasn’t grown since 2014.
Over the years, opinion hasn’t budged much. As laws have changed, opinions really haven’t. Does this mean, much like a tech adoption curve, that acceptance has peaked? Is the marijuana support curve tapped out?
Conversely, one could also look at the opposition and note it hasn’t changed either, even as legalization has spread. People haven’t become opposed to it in any large numbers since legalization.
Where legalization heads in 2018 is anyone’s guess, but we can say that the change (or lack thereof) is a story all on its own. Check out our updated Insight Report on Marijuana Legalization for a deeper dive into 2018’s support and opposition of the hot topic issue.
