SAN FRANCISCO - A poll has promising news for marijuana users who hope California will join two other states that voted to legalize recreational use of the drug.

A Field Poll released Wednesday found that 54 percent of those surveyed support allowing weed to be sold and taxed like alcohol.

That's four percentage points higher than the last time Field pollsters posed the question to registered voters in July 2010. A ballot initiative that would have made California the first state to back marijuana legalization later lost by fewer than 700,000 votes.

Washington and Colorado voters last year decided to allow small amounts of pot.

The poll found that support for medical marijuana remains high in California despite a push by federal prosecutors and local governments to crack down on dispensaries.