Most Americans think people can be responsible adults while smoking marijuana now and then, according to a HuffPost/YouGov poll released Wednesday.
Fifty-nine percent said it was possible for responsible adults to smoke pot occasionally, while 28 percent said it wasn't and 12 percent were unsure.
Democrats were the most likely to say that occasional smokers could be responsible (69 percent), but a solid majority of independents agreed as well (59 percent). Republicans were more evenly split, with 46 percent saying that it was possible for pot smokers to be responsible people and 43 percent that it was not.
Americans were also more likely to agree that most occasional marijuana smokers are responsible adults than that most are not, by a margin of 45 percent to 35 percent. A 47 percent plurality said that smoking pot makes no difference in how easy it is to be responsible, while 38 percent said it makes it harder and just 5 percent said it makes it easier.
Over the last several years, polling has found rapidly increasing support for legalizing marijuana in the U.S. A February Pew Research poll found that 54 percent of Americans support legalization and that just 15 percent think marijuana is more harmful to personal health than alcohol.
The HuffPost/YouGov poll was conducted April 4-7 among 1,000 U.S. adults, using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population. Factors considered include age, race, gender, education, employment, income, marital status, number of children, voter registration, time and location of Internet access, interest in politics, religion and church attendance.
The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling.
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