Americans Split on Legalizing Marijuana

According to a poll released Friday, Americans are nearly split on whether marijuana should be legalized or not.

The poll, conducted by Ramussen Reports, finds that 44 percent of likely U.S. voters believe marijuana should be legalized while 42 percent believe it should not.

Most Americans feel that the federal government should not decide whether marijuana is legal in a state. More than half of Americans -- 54 percent -- believe the decision to legalize marijuana should be up to the state government, while only 32 percent believe the federal government should be responsible for deciding whether marijuana is legal in a state.

The survey of 1,000 adults nationwide was conducted Aug. 12-13. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.