Solid majority of Americans support legal marijuana use: poll

A solid majority, or 60 percent, of Americans now support the legal use of marijuana as more states are to vote on the issue in the November elections, a new Gallup poll released Wednesday has found.

This is the highest record in Gallup's 47-year surveys since it first conducted the poll in 1969, when only 12 percent of Americans supported the legalization of marijuana use.

Marijuana use is currently legal in four states -- Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia. Five more states -- California, Arizona, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada -- will vote in November on whether to legalize marijuana use.

Americans' support for legal marijuana use has been rising since late 1970s when the support was 28 percent. After a retreat in the 1980s, the support stayed in the 25-percent range through 1995, before increasing to 31 percent in 2000, Gallup said.

Support for legalizing marijuana use in the United States reached a majority for the first time in 2013 after Washington and Colorado became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana use, according to Gallup.

Support for legalizing marijuana use has increased among most subgroups in the past decade, climbing 33 percentage points to 77 percent among adults aged 18 to 34, and increasing 16 points to 45 percent among adults aged 55 and older, Gallup said.

If recreational marijuana use becomes legal in California this year, many other states will likely follow because the "Golden State" often sets political trends for the rest of the country, Gallup said. Endi