As More States Normalize Marijuana Legalization, New Poll Shows Many Americans Feel Neutral About Its Societal Impact

With the majority of states now having legalized marijuana for medical or recreational use, a new poll signals that cannabis’s normalization has left many people feeling neutral about how the policy impacts society—though more say the reform has been “good” than believe it has been “bad.”

The poll from NBC News, which was conducted by SurveyMonkey, asked over 30,000 Americans about their views on a wide range of policy issues, including cannabis legalization.

“Thinking about the fact recreational marijuana is now legal in much of the country, do you think this is generally: 1) A good thing for society, 2) A bad thing for society or 3) Neither good nor bad,” the survey asks.

A 44 percent plurality said legalization was neither good nor bad, followed by 29 percent who said it was a good thing for society and 27 percent who said it was bad.

The pollsters also did a demographic breakout of the survey to focus on Gen Z adults aged 18-29. While a similar percentage (45 percent) expressed neutrality on the question of the societal impact of cannabis legalization, more of the younger generation (33 percent) said the policy is good for society. Another 23 percent said its impact was bad.

The broader survey involved interviews with 30,196 adults from August 13 to September 1, with a +/- 1.9 percentage point margin of error. That included 2,970 Gen Z adult who were included in the more narrow poll.

While this poll focused on societal impacts of legalization, a separate survey released earlier this month found that 65 percent of registered voters agreed that the reform in general is a “good” policy.

This all comes as advocates and stakeholders await a decision from President Donald Trump on a more modest rescheduling proposal, which he said would be decided imminently.

These are some the latest in a series of polls investigating public opinion on cannabis reform.

For example, recently released polling data from the Pew Research Center found that an overwhelming majority of Americans—nearly nine in 10—support legalizing marijuana in some form.

Another recent survey from the Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education, and Regulation (CPEAR), which was conducted by the firm Forbes Tate Partners, showed that seven in 10 American voters want to see the end of federal marijuana prohibition—and nearly half say they’d view the Trump administration more favorably if it took action on the issue.

A poll released in June that Marijuana Moment partnered on with the cannabis telehealth platform NuggMD showed that a majority of marijuana consumers disapprove of the Trump administration’s actions on cannabis policy to date, but there’s also a significant willingness among users to shift their position if the federal government opts to reschedule or legalize marijuana.

Earlier this year, meanwhile, a firm associated with Trump—Fabrizio, Lee & Associates—also polled Americans on a series of broader marijuana policy issues. Notably, it found that a majority of Republicans back cannabis rescheduling—and, notably, they’re even more supportive of allowing states to legalize marijuana without federal interference compared to the average voter.

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In the background of this polling, the Trump administration is considering a proposal to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

Recently, nine GOP congressional lawmakers have called on the U.S. attorney general to reject what they called a “corrupt and flawed” marijuana rescheduling proposal.

In contrast to that letter from GOP lawmakers, a leading drug policy reform group recently launched a petition urging the president to go further than rescheduling by legalizing marijuana altogether.

Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.