"• In 2024, the percentage of 12th grade students who favored legalization of marijuana significantly decreased by eight points to 38% (Table 8-7). This decline and a similar one the previous year mark an abrupt departure from the almost steady rise in support of legalization since the mid 1980s, when it rose from 15% in 1986 to 51% in 2022. A level near 38% as recorded in 2024 was last seen 13 years earlier, when the level was 39% in 2011. Decreasing support for legalization of marijuana use among 12th grade students coincides with their decreasing levels of use in recent years.
"The proportion of 12th grade students who favored treating marijuana use as a crime in 2024 significantly increased by six points to 14%, which is double the previous year’s level of 7%. 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 dropped by 1% to 2% in every year from 2012 to 2021. The significant increase in 2024 in support for making marijuana use a crime tracks with the significant decline in support for legalization.
"Given higher levels of support for legalization among adults,41 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?”, as well as 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 U.S.
"Past editions of this monograph report trends since 1975 in 12th graders’ attitudes toward prohibiting private and public use of drugs. These questions were asked for marijuana, LSD, heroin, amphetamines or sedatives, getting drunk, and cigarettes. The questions were discontinued in 2024."
Miech, R. A., Johnston, L. D., Patrick, M. E., & O'Malley, P. M. (2025). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975–2024: Overview and detailed results for secondary school students. Monitoring the Future Monograph Series. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan.
