According to new data from Gallup surveys 51% of Republicans now find themselves supporting the legalization of Marijuana. This new trend in the polls is tipping the party in favor of legalization for the first time. Last year the GOP was only 42% in favor of legalization. Marking an important change in Republican thinking towards Marijuana.

Americans over all are showing support for legalization with 62% of people in favor of legalizing the plant. States that have made it legal have reaped the benefits of job growth and tax revenue in their states. Currently 8 states and Washington D.C. have successfully made the transition and will serve as a model going forward with this process. Although concerns have surfaced with impaired driving and under age use these incidents have proven minimal in comparison to the benefits.

Gallup first asked national adults about their views on the topic in 1969, when 12% supported legalization. Support had more than doubled by the end of the next decade but changed little throughout the 1980s and 1990s. By 2001, however, about a third of Americans favored legalizing marijuana, and support has steadily increased since. A majority of Americans have consistently supported legalizing marijuana since 2013.

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Oct. 5-11, 2017, with a random sample of 1,028 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.

Although Marijuana is illegal on the federal level it looks like it is making its way into the favor of American people nation wide.