Poll: Support For Legalizing Marijuana At All-Time High

CHICAGO (CBS) -- As Illinois slowly moves toward allowing medical marijuana use, a new poll finds support for legalizing pot outright is at an all-time record.

According to a new Gallup Poll, 58 percent of American say marijuana use should be legal, tying the high point over the 46 years that Gallup as conducted the survey.

Americans' support for legal marijuana has steadily grown over time.

When Gallup first asked the question, in 1969, 12 percent of Americans thought marijuana use should be legal

The percentage of Americans who favored making use of the drug legal exceeded 30 percent by 2000 and was higher than 40 percent by 2009.

Wednesday's poll ties the all-time mark of set in 2013.

So far, four states and the District of Columbia have made recreational use of marijuana legal.

In February, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner issued the first round of licenses, allowing companies to grow or distribute marijuana prescribed for medical reasons.

In Illinois, a doctor must diagnose the patient with one of the state-approved conditions.

Qualifying patients pay an annual fee of $100 for a marijuana card. Patients aren't allowed to grow their own cannabis.

Younger Americans have always shown the most support of any age group for making marijuana legal, growing from 20 percent in 1969 to 71 percent currently.

"One reason Americans are more likely to support legal marijuana today than they were in the past is because newer generations of adults, who are much more inclined to favor use of the drug, are replacing older generations in the population who were much less inclined to want it to be legalized," Gallup said.

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Oct. 7-11, 2015, with a random sample of 1,015 adults. The margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.