There is a third poll in the past few days suggesting that Americans' attitudes toward marijuana legalization have reached the tipping point, if not toppled over it. A survey conducted over the weekend by Public Policy Polling (PPP) finds a record high 58% of respondents think pot should be legal, while only 39% think it should not.





That finding comes on the heels of a CBS News poll showing the highest support for legalization since it starting asking the question (although still not quite over the top at 47%) and an Angus-Reid poll that had support for legalization at 54%.It also comes just days before Americans are confronted with the reality of legal marijuana in one of the two states that legalized it last month. On Thursday, the provision of Washington's I-502 initiative allowing the adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana goes into effect. The possession (and cultivation) provisions of Colorado's Amendment 64 will go into effect days later, by January 5 at the latest.In the PPP poll, 33% of respondents felt "strongly" that marijuana should be legal, while another 25% agreed, but didn't feel strongly about it. Taking the two together, that's 58% in support of freeing the weed.Poll respondents also wanted the federal government to allow Colorado and Washington to chart their own paths on marijuana (47%), with only one-third (33%) calling for the federal government to intervene. And a slight plurality (45%) said marijuana was safer than alcohol, while 42% said it was not safer.There were few surprises in the cross-tabs. Support for legalization was stronger among men (62%) than among women (54%) and stronger among Democrats (68%) and independents (59%) than among Republicans (42%). Somewhat surprisingly, Hispanics reported stronger support for legalization (61%) than blacks (56%) or whites (55%). There was majority support for legalization among voters under 45, but not over. Still, even among the older folks, there was 47% support among 45-to-64-year-olds and 48% for the above-65 set.