Washington, DC: Half of young Christians favor legalizing marijuana consumption for adults, according to polling data released last week by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).
Among self-identified Christians age 18 to 29, 45 percent said that they had used cannabis and 32 percent said that they “strongly favored” its legalization. Eighteen percent said that they “favored” the policy change. By contrast, only nine percent of Christians age 65 and older endorsed allowing adults to legally consume the plant.
Overall, 39 percent of Christians polled favored legalization, while 54 percent opposed the idea.
Among those respondents who were religiously unaffiliated, 66 percent backed legalizing marijuana.
Among all respondents, 70 percent said that consuming cannabis recreationally is not a sin, compared to 23 percent who said they believed that consuming the plant was sinful. A separate national pollconducted by the Pew Research Center earlier this month reported that 32 percent of respondents believed that consuming marijuana was morally wrong, down eighteen percent from 2006.
The PRRI survey interviewed 1,000 US adults and possesses a margin of error of ±3.5 percent.
Source: NORML - make a donation
