"• In 2023 46% of 12th grade students favored legalization of marijuana (Table 8-8). Support for legalization has been steadily and rapidly increasing since 2007, when it was near 30%. Prior to 2008, support followed a U-shape curve, in which support levels near 30% were present at the beginning of the survey, in 1975, then dipped by half to a nadir of 15% in 1986–1988, only to redouble and return to around 30% by 1995, where it hovered for a decade before rising to a majority for the first time in 2019. The percentage support was 51% in 2019, 2021, and also 2022. This consistency indicates that a change in question text in 2022 did not result in a major shift in prevalence in 2022, when students were asked 'do you favor' instead of the wording 'would you favor' that was used in all previous years.
"• The proportion of 12th grade students who favor treating marijuana use as a crime in 2023 was just 7%, which ties with the previous year for the lowest level ever recorded by the survey. Trends for this outcome are a mirror image of the pattern seen for support of marijuana legalization. Back around 1990 as many as 50% thought its use should be a crime. Support has dropped by 1% to 2% in every year since 2012. The same levels of 7% in 2021, 2022, and 2023 suggest no major changes resulted from the change in question text in 2022, when students were asked 'do you favor' instead of the wording 'would you favor' that was used in all previous years.
"• Given higher levels of support for legalization among adults,18 tolerance for legalization appears to increase after the high school years.
"Past editions of this monograph reported trends in 12th grade responses to the question 'If it were legal for people to USE marijuana, should it also be legal to SELL marijuana?' and also a question on whether students would be more inclined to use marijuana if it were legalized. These questions were discontinued in 2022 in response to the changing landscape of the legal status of marijuana use across the US."
Miech, R. A., Johnston, L. D., Patrick, M. E., & O’Malley, P. M. (2024). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975–2023: Overview and detailed results for secondary school students. Monitoring the Future Monograph Series. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan.
