Relaxing laws against marijuana is much more popular among the American public than even services like Uber and Airbnb, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey reveals.
Out of 1,000 American respondents in the survey, 47 percent said that relaxing marijuana laws counts as a step in the right direction, with only 30 percent opposed to less restrictive laws.
Only 38 percent approved of what the survey referred to as the “gig economy,” which includes services like Uber and Airbnb. A total of 12 percent rated the gig economy as a step in the wrong direction, and 20 percent were unsure altogether.
Other controversial issues didn’t fare as well as marijuana reform. For example, more restrictive laws on abortion only garnered 36 percent support and 45 percent opposition.
Legalizing marijuana often receives the support of the majority of American voters in other national polls, much to the chagrin of many politicians and public figures, who would rather ignore the issue or have young people focus on other, more important issues.
Earlier this year, Barack Obama gave an interview with Vice, in which he reacted negatively to the fact that the number one question coming in from the Internet was marijuana legalization.
“It shouldn’t be young people’s biggest priority,” Obama said. “Let’s put it in perspective. Young people, I understand this is important to you. But you should be thinking about climate change, the economy, jobs, war and peace.
“Maybe way at the bottom you should be thinking about marijuana.”
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently dismissed marijuana legalization as a topic unworthy of capturing the passion of the youth vote.
“I don’t really care what kind of thing you become passionate about,” she said at an Amherst College speech. “Maybe legalizing marijuana, but you know.”
Though marijuana reform continues to poll well nationwide, new FBI data just released indicated that the arrest rate for marijuana offenses increased for the first time since 2009. (RELATED: New FBI Data: One Marijuana Arrest Every 45 seconds In 2014)
The margin of error for the survey is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
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