Poll: Support for legal marijuana hits all-time high

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. voters back legalizing marijuana, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.

Support for legalization hit 63 percent in the survey — the highest level of support recorded by a Quinnipiac poll. A third of American voters still oppose legalization, the poll found. 

Support for medical marijuana is even higher, at 93 percent. Only about 5 percent of respondents opposed it.

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The poll also found little support for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s decision earlier this year to rescind an Obama-era policy that paved the way for individual states to legalize marijuana without federal interference.

Seventy percent of respondents said that they oppose enforcement of federal laws prohibiting marijuana in states that have moved to legalize the substance, while only 23 percent were in favor of such enforcement.

So far, nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized the use of recreational pot, and two dozen states have approved medical marijuana. Nevertheless, the substance remains federally prohibited. 

In January, Sessions rescinded the Cole memo, which discouraged federal prosecutors from prioritizing marijuana-related charges in states that had voted to legalize it. 

Fifty-four percent of respondents to the Quinnipiac poll said that among the reasons to legalize marijuana is that it would bring in additional revenue through taxes. Still, 42 percent said that such revenue is not a good justification for legalizing pot.

The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,193 voters from April 20-24. Its margin of error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.