This research aims to enhance our understanding of the relationship between racial prejudice and White Americans’ views on cannabis legalization. The recent legalization of recreational cannabis in a handful of states, along with many other states legalizing medical cannabis in recent years, has catapulted the flowering plant back into the spotlight and nightly news cycles. Given the historically racist propaganda used to criminalize the plant, it follows that Whites’ support for legalization may be associated with racial prejudice. Using data from the General Social Survey data from 1972–2018, we find that different forms of racial prejudice have a negative effect on Whites’ support for cannabis legalization generally. Additionally, as the negative effect of overt, old-fashioned racism diminishes over time and across birth cohorts it is supplanted by the more subtle laissez-faire racism. In conclusion, we discuss the implication of the relationship between racial prejudice and views on marijuana for the increasingly complicated racial dynamics surrounding cannabis legalization.

这项研究旨在加深我们对种族偏见与美国白人对大麻合法化的看法之间的关系的了解。近年来，在一些州，休闲大麻的合法化以及近年来将医用大麻合法化的其他许多州，使开花植物重新回到了人们关注的焦点和夜间新闻周期。考虑到用于种族歧视的历史性种族主义宣传，因此，白人对合法化的支持可能与种族偏见有关。使用来自1972-2018年的一般社会调查数据的数据，我们发现不同形式的种族偏见对白人普遍支持大麻合法化产生负面影响。此外，作为明显的负面影响，老式的种族主义会随着时间的流逝而减少，在整个出生群体中，它会被更为微妙的自由放任的种族主义所取代。总之，我们讨论了种族偏见和对大麻的看法之间的关系对围绕大麻合法化日益复杂的种族动态的影响。