Poll: High Percentage of Americans Have Tried Marijuana; Democrat Men Lead the Way

drugs smoked
Robin van Lonkhuijsen/AFP via Getty Images
Simon Kent

Half of Americans said they have tried marijuana, though far fewer use it regularly, a poll by Gallup released Thursday reveals. Democrat men were the single most likely group to smoke the recreational drug.

The poll, published Thursday, found 50 percent of respondents said they have tried weed while 17 percent of those surveyed said they smoke it regularly.

This is a two-point rise from a similar poll in January 2022, in which 48 percent of respondents said they have sampled the highly addictive drug.

Sorted along party political lines, 57 percent of Democratic respondents said they have tried marijuana, compared to 52 percent of independents and 39 percent of Republicans. Fifty-three percent of male respondents and 44 percent of female respondents said they have tried marijuana, the poll numbers reveal.

There was limited variation by age group. Fifty-one percent of respondents between the ages of 35 and 54 said they have tried marijuana, compared to 49 percent between 18 and 34 years and 47 percent who are 55 or older.

“As marijuana has become more available to Americans and legal in an increasing number of states, their reports of use and experimentation have increased too,” Gallup said in a statement.

Democratic presidential challenger Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has already called for the federal legalization of marijuana, arguing states alone should be allowed to decide their own pot laws without federal interference.

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