Millennials care more about legalizing marijuana than they care about the election.
In a new Pew Research Center poll, 71 percent of millennials aged 18-35 support the legalization of marijuana, which more than doubled from 34 percent in 2006 in the same age group. Compare that number to the 47 percent of millennials who say they’ll “definitely vote” in November.
While millennials have been feeling pretty low when it comes between voting for Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Gary Johnson, or Jill Stein, they’ve never been higher on marijuana. And they should start patting themselves on the back for it because they’ve been key in driving public perception of the drug.
In November, nine states will be voting to expand legal access to marijuana. As of this year, there are 25 states (plus Washington D.C., Guam, and Puerto Rico) that have legalized marijuana in some form. In June, Ohio Governor John Kasich signed a medical marijuana program into law less than a year after a ballot initiative legalizing recreational use of the drug failed.
It’s a huge culture shift for the country. According to the Pew survey, 57 percent of all U.S. adults believe marijuana should be legal, as opposed to 37 percent who say it should be illegal. A decade ago, those numbers were basically flipped—32 percent supported legalization while 60 percent were opposed.
If this nation continues on the path it’s going, millennials can take solace in knowing the fact that while they can’t find a good paying job, have thousands of dollars in student debt, or can’t buy a home, they can at least roll one up to forget about their problems without going to prison.
