Cannabis advocates tend to be young, rich, suburban, educated, liberal, and secular, study shows

Liberals, secular and younger people broadly back legalized cannabis, while conservative, religious and older Americans are putting the brakes on the country's speedy experiment to lift restrictions on the drug, new research shows.

Gallup polling data from 2018 to the present day show that the biggest backers of legal weed skew liberal, secular, unmarried, black, white, affluent, college-educated, suburban, aged under 50 and oftentimes living out West.

Conversely, those against recreational pot stores tend to be churchgoers, conservatives, Hispanics, women, Christians, poorer, married, East Coast types, according to an analysis released on Tuesday.

'Ideology, religiosity, age and party identification are the most important predictors of marijuana attitudes,' Gallup said in a statement.

'After controlling for the effects of other respondent characteristics such as gender, age and education, political liberals are about three times more likely, on average, than political conservatives to support legalizing marijuana.'

Cannabis advocates celebrate the successful ballot measure to legalize cannabis in St. Louis, Missouri during the midterm elections earlier this month. The biggest backers of legal weed skew liberal, secular, unmarried, black, white, affluent, college-educated, suburban, aged under 50 and oftentimes living out West

America's biggest cannabis fans skew young, rich, suburban, educated, liberal, and secular, while older, rural, church-going conservatives and Hispanics put the brakes on legalization, research shows

Overall, Gallup's survey found that support for legal weed remains at a record high of 68 percent. When the group began asking about lifting restrictions on pot in 1969, only 12 percent of Americans favored the idea.

Still, support 'appears to be leveling off for now, not showing any change in the past three years,' Gallup added.

'In future decades, support for legalizing marijuana can be expected to continue to grow as newer, likely more pro-marijuana, generations replace older generations in the US population.'

The survey comes a week after Maryland and Missouri voters approved midterm election ballot measures to legalize recreational marijuana for adults, while those in Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota rejected similar measures.

With the addition of Maryland and Missouri, 21 states have legalized recreational marijuana for adults over the past decade — even as it remains illegal under federal law. 

In Missouri, it will soon become legal for adults to possess and ingest cannabis, but it could take a couple more months before they can legally buy it. Marylanders will have to wait until the middle of next year before the recently-approved pot measure takes effect.

Support for legal weed remains at a record high of 68 percent. When the group began asking about lifting restrictions on pot in 1969, only 12 percent of Americans favored the idea.

Hemant Shahi smokes marijuana during a rally with cannabis activists outside the White House in October.  America's biggest cannabis fans skew young, rich, suburban, educated, liberal, and secular

Pot advocates are pressing forward with similar efforts elsewhere, undeterred by the three defeats. The next vote on legalizing recreational marijuana for adults will occur in Oklahoma. 

Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt set a March election after a delay in counting initiative signatures and legal challenges prevented the measure from appearing on the November ballot.

Oklahoma already has one of the nation's most robust medical marijuana programs, with about 2,500 licensed dispensaries. About 380,000 people, nearly 10 percent of all residents, have state-issued medical cards allowing them to buy, grow and consume marijuana.

After Oklahoma, Ohio could vote next on cannabis legalization. A group that originally sought to get a measure on the November ballot reached a legal settlement with legislative leaders that could allow supporters to submit petition signatures for a 2023 vote.

After Democratic victories in last week's legislative and gubernatorial elections, Minnesota could be poised to legalize recreational marijuana next year without needing to go to voters.

Legislative approval of recreational marijuana also could be pursued next year in Democratic-led Hawaii, said Matthew Schweich, deputy director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington, DC.

New citizen-led ballot initiatives are possible in Florida, Idaho, Nebraska, Wyoming and the three states where ballot measures recently failed.

This year was 'probably the worst election cycle for cannabis reform since the first ones passed in 2012, but there's still a belief that we can go win more states in 2024,' said Schweich, who ran this year's campaign in South Dakota.

Marijuana legalization campaigns raised about $24 million in the five states where they were on the ballot, according to pre-election finance reports.

The vast majority of that was in Arkansas and Missouri, where more than 85 percent of contributions came from donors associated with medical marijuana licensees, according to an AP analysis.

In Arkansas, some marijuana advocates opposed the initiative because it benefitted the existing industry while lacking provisions for people to grow their own cannabis and expunge past marijuana convictions.

But advocates hope to return to voters in two years with a revised plan.

'I think the people still truly want to see this,' said Eddie Armstrong, chairman of the group that campaigned for the Arkansas initiative.

Pro-cannabis campaigners were buoyed last month by President Joe Biden's decision to pardon thousands of federal convicts for pot possession and urged governors to quash state convictions, which reflect the vast majority of marijuana possession cases.

Teenagers are lured by colorfully-packaged candy-like products that leave them vulnerable to higher rates of dependency, psychosis and school dropouts, researchers warn. Pictured: child-friendly cannabis gummy packaging

The move by Biden, who had hitherto resisted efforts to decriminalize pot, amounted to the most extensive White House action taken to date on US drug policy.

In a statement, the Democrat leader said 'too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana' and that 'no one should be in jail just for using or possessing'.

Research firm BDSA projects legal cannabis sales to hit $30 billion this year, and $47.6 billion by 2026, surpassing the craft beer industry and sending windfall tax revenues into the coffers of permissive states.

Experts have cautioned against America's speedy switch to legalized pot, amid a growing body of evidence that widespread availability leads to increased use, particularly among young people, together with addiction and mental health issues.

Stress from the Covid-19 pandemic has also driven up the number of users.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse's (NIDA) annual survey in August found the number of under-30s using marijuana hit record levels last year — which the agency's boss Dr Nora Volkow called a 'concern'.

The $30billion cannabis industry argues that taking the drug — either smoking it, vaping it or as an edible — can help relieve feelings of anxiety or depression, chronic pain, and even help fight addictions.

The US Cannabis Council, a major lobbying group, says legalization is widely supported, that pot is safe and can help addicts beat opioid and alcohol dependency.

But in states where pot has been legalized, many parents say their children have been sucked into an addiction spiral.

America's $30 billion legalized cannabis industry is causing an 'explosion' of teen users

Teenagers in states that have legalized cannabis use more of it and are lured by colorfully-packaged candy-like products that leave them vulnerable to higher rates of dependency, psychosis and school dropouts, researchers warn.

A DailyMail.com analysis of research focusing on California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and other states that have legalized recreational pot shows experts warning of a 'potential explosion' of under-aged use — and more youngsters using it than in states where it's illegal.

Renee Goodwin, a psychiatric and substance use epidemiologist who leads Columbia University's research, says teen cannabis use grows faster after legalization  

They are alarmed by the weak oversight of a $30 billion business and warn of a free-for-all market in which super-strength cannabis products are sold in cartoon-covered packaging that attracts youngsters, even as tobacco and alcohol firms are barred from targeting youths.

Data from the 19 states that have permitted recreational pot this past decade, as well as the 38 states that allow medical use, indicates that teens and young adults there are using stronger products more often.

Not every teen who eats a pot gummy sees their life unravel. But they are more prone to addiction and dependency than adults, and greater availability and use means more cases of anxiety, depression, psychosis and even suicide.

In November, voters in Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, North and South Dakota will decide on whether to liberalize their own cannabis laws — and let windfall pot industry taxes flow into state coffers.

'Cannabis use is more common among youth and adults in states where cannabis use is legal for recreational use,' Renee Goodwin, who leads Columbia University's research, told DailyMail.com.

'Legalization has moved from a social justice issue, to the other extreme of big business commercialization without any of the same restrictions that tobacco and alcohol now need to follow.'

Mary Maas, 57, from Washington, which legalized weed in 2012, told DailyMail.com how her son Adam, 26, spiraled into a devastating addiction to super-strength pot products worlds apart from the 'Woodstock weed' she recalls from the 1960s.

Now, she looks at the potent oils, vapes, dabs, drinks and gummies sold at a growing number of dispensaries, as well as the down-and-outs living in tents under Seattle's I-5 highway, and urges other states to heed Washington's lessons.

'They'd better watch out,' she said.

Adam Maas, 26, with his family in Washington. Mom Mary, 57, describes her 'straight-A student' getting hooked on super-strength cannabis products and ending up delusional, jobless and sleeping rough in Seattle