Americans Are Changing Their Minds About Drug Policy — Here’s Why

Through Jelena Martinovic

A new YouGov poll showed Americans are becoming more liberal in their drug policy stance. Of the 40% of respondents who admitted to changing their minds on drug policy, nearly half (48%) said they had taken a more “liberal” perspective on the issue, Marijuana Moment reported. Twenty-six percent of respondents took a “more conservative” view, while the rest said their opinion had “changed in a different way.”

Some of the top reasons people change their minds about political issues include learning about “new facts or information” and acquiring insights about the world as they mature, followed by “world events” that prompt them to do so have to reconsider their stance.

Other top issues why people are more likely to change their minds over the course of their lives include foreign policy, health care, the death penalty, and immigration.

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The survey was conducted online earlier this month and included 1,000 US citizens ages 18 and older.

Meanwhile, a recent Gallup poll found that half of Americans said marijuana had a negative impact on society. The new results surprised many, considering that according to another Gallup poll, 68.7% of Americans think cannabis should be legal.

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Interestingly, adults who have tried cannabis believe that the effects of cannabis on consumers (70%) and society in general (66%) are positive, while on the contrary, the majority of those who have never tried it say that they believe that the impact is negative for both society (72%) and users (62%).

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.