West Hollywood gay marriage rally, photo by Sara Newman

According to data from a new Gallup poll, a record 58 percent of Americans now support the legalization of marijuana.

 While the legalization of the drug in Washington and Colorado may have been shocking to some, countrywide support for the drug’s legalization has increased by ten percent in the last year. For the first time since Gallup began testing the issue in 1969, with only 12 percent support for legalization, a clear majority of Americans favor marijuana legalization. 

It is likely that the issue of legalization will be addressed in Alaska, Arizona, California, Oregon, Maine, Montana, and Vermont as well on 2014 ballots. 

The Daily Intelligencer recently plotted the Gallup poll results for support of marijuana legalization alongside the results for support of same-sex marriage to compare how the country has recently responded to these two supposedly liberal ideas. 

The results show support for both issues generally increasing, with support for same-sex marriage decreasing slightly in the past few months, while support for legalization of marijuana has increased quite a bit in the same time span. 

Ultimately, however,  "the movement to legalize marijuana mirrors the relatively recent success of the movement to legalize gay marriage, which voters have also approved now in 14 states,” according to Gallup. “Public support for gay marriage, which Americans also overwhelmingly opposed in the past, has increased dramatically, reaching majority support in the last two years."

Contact Executive Producer Sara Newman here. Tweet her here.