{"id":7753,"date":"2026-05-26T15:32:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T19:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/facts-about-marijuana\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T10:03:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T14:03:04","slug":"facts-about-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2026\/05\/26\/facts-about-marijuana\/","title":{"rendered":"10 facts about Americans and marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A marijuana plant in New York City’s Washington Square Park on April 20, 2023. (Leonardo Munoz\/VIEWpress)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The legal landscape surrounding marijuana use in the United States has changed dramatically since 2012, when Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize the drug for recreational use<\/a>. Today, nearly half of the states and the District of Columbia allow people to use marijuana for both medical and recreational reasons. And even though it remains illegal under federal law, the Trump administration has relaxed national regulations on medical marijuana<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are 10 facts about Americans and marijuana, based on Pew Research Center surveys and other sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About this research<\/summary>\n

This Pew Research Center analysis highlights key facts about Americans and marijuana, including the public\u2019s views about legalizing the drug for medical and recreational purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did we do this?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Pew Research Center does research to help the public, media and decision-makers understand important topics. This analysis builds on our previous work about drug policy in the United States<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did we do this?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This analysis primarily uses data from a Pew Research Center survey of 8,512 U.S. adults from Jan. 20 to 26, 2026. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center\u2019s American Trends Panel. The survey represents the views of the full U.S. adult population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the survey questions we used for this analysis<\/a>, the detailed responses<\/a> and the survey methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This analysis also relies on earlier Center surveys and analyses, as well as information from Gallup, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Information about these sources and their research methodologies can be found by following the links in the text.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

The vast majority of Americans support legalizing marijuana in some way,<\/strong>\u00a0according to a January 2026 Center survey. A majority of U.S. adults (55%) say that marijuana should be legal for medical and<\/em> recreational use, and another 33% say it should be legal for medical use only<\/em>. Just 11% say the drug should not be legal at all. These views have held relatively steady since 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Only about 1 in 10 U.S. adults say marijuana should not be legal at all<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
% who say marijuana should be …<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n
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Note: 1% of respondents did not answer the question.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Jan. 20-26, 2026.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
PEW RESEARCH CENTER<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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Share this chart<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t