Only about a third of Americans think marijuana is dangerous, and less than half still believe the “gateway theory” that using cannabis makes people significantly more likely to try more dangerous drugs, according to a new poll.

The survey, released by Rasmussen Reports on Tuesday, asked U.S. adults how dangerous they think cannabis is.

Just over one out of three indicated they think marijuana is either somewhat (24 percent) or very dangerous (13 percent).

In contrast, a majority of respondents said cannabis is either not dangerous at all (27 percent) or not very dangerous (28 percent).

When asked how likely they believe it is that “marijuana use leads to the use of more dangerous drugs,” just 18 percent said it is very likely and 27 percent believe it is somewhat likely. Nineteen percent said it is not at all likely and 27 percent think it is not very likely, while 9 percent said they aren’t sure.

When broken down by party, Republicans are more likely to believe that marijuana is either somewhat or very dangerous (50 percent) than Democrats are (33 percent).

GOP voters are also more likely to buy the gateway theory about marijuana being very or somewhat likely to be true (60 percent) than Democrats are (42 percent).

The poll involved interviews with 1,234 American adults between September 8-10 and has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.

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The results comport with other recent surveys showing that American attitudes and behaviors around cannabis are shifting.

A Gallup poll released last month, for example, found that a record-high number of U.S. adults now smoke marijuana, while cigarette smoking is at an all-time low.

Similarly, an analysis of federal National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) data published last year showed that more Americans now use marijuana than smoke cigarettes amid shifting perceptions of harm of the two substances.

A study released last month found that people who consume cannabis-infused THC beverages end up drinking less alcohol.

Last year, a separate Gallup poll found that a majority of Americans remain in favor of legalizing marijuana but that support saw a slight dip from 2024—a trend that’s been “driven by Republicans” who are turning against the reform.

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Marijuana legalization might be a popular policy issue in recent polls, but most Americans don’t think cannabis itself is “cool,” according to a new survey. In fact, marijuana is considered less cool than things like sourdough bread, country music, math, word games and reading books.

The YouGov poll looked at public opinion on the subjective concept of coolness—with findings that might challenge conventional thinking. When it comes to a wide range of commodities and activities, marijuana stood out as a comparatively lame, falling near the bottom of the cool list despite being commonly associated with popular cultural figures, political movements and lifestyles.

If that comes as a surprise to people, they wouldn’t be alone. In a separate question in the new survey, respondents overrated how cool other people think marijuana is as compared to their own views.

Overall, just 36 percent of American adults described marijuana as cool, with 13 percent saying it is “very cool” and 23 percent grading it as “somewhat cool.” Another 10 percent weren’t sure, while 55 percent said cannabis isn’t cool—with 35 rating it as “not cool at all” and 20 percent believing it is “not very cool.”

The survey listed a total of 36 things or activities that respondents were tasked with rating on a coolness scale. Marijuana was was the fourth to last on that list, with just guns, sports betting and cryptocurrency considered less cool.

Perhaps as surprising as the relative un-coolness of cannabis were some of the items that ranked as significantly more cool. Among the picks that a majority of adults described as either very or somewhat cool were science (87 percent), outer space (83 percent), reading books (81 percent), tea (65 percent), math (59 percent), sourdough bread (59 percent), country music (56 percent) and avocados (51 percent).

Via YouGov.

“The results suggest the typical American is a bit of a square,” YouGov’s senior data journalist David Montgomery wrote. However, “there are many activities that Americans are less likely to consider cool than to think other people think are cool.”

To that point, the survey’s cannabis finding showed that it’s somewhat common for people to overestimate how cool other people view marijuana. Just over one-third of adults said they themselves think cannabis is cool, but the respondents on average said they expected about half of other people (49 percent) to regard it as cool.

Via YouGov.

The poll involved interviews with 2,236 U.S. adults from April 9-17, with a +/- 3 percentage point margin of error. That’s a relatively common margin for online surveys. But as Montgomery conceded, it’s worth noting that, in this poll, the adults who were asked to judge what’s cool and what’s not cool are also adults who voluntarily elected to take an online survey in the first place.

Meanwhile, a polling report from the Pew Research Center released in March found that Americans across every demographic—age, gender, religion and political affiliation—all agree that using marijuana is not morally wrong. However, Republicans are still twice as likely as Democrats to say consuming cannabis is a moral no-no.

Pew also released a poll last year that showed an overwhelming majority of Americans—nearly 9 in 10—support legalizing marijuana in some form.

An earlier Pew survey from 2024 separately highlighted views on the societal impacts of recreational legalization, and a majority (52 percent) said the reform is “good” for local economies. A 42 percent plurality additionally agreed that legalization would make the criminal justice system “more fair.”

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