The dominant narrative over the last decade when it comes to marijuana and the general public has been that people were, slowly but surely, becoming fed up with the federal government’s reluctance to relax.

There’s where America’s love affair with pot seemed to end, though. The general public was convinced the drug didn’t merit criminalization. But fraternal orders of police and other professional organizations representing law enforcement across the country have never seemed to warm up to the idea of legalization — medical or recreational.

Just last year a fight over recreational legalization in California (Prop. 64) drew the ire of police organizations and officers throughout the state. In 2015 six sheriffs in Colorado sued their own governor in federal court in an attempt to overturn the state’s legalization of the drug.

There’s evidence now, however, that those organizations aren’t necessarily representing their membership’s complicated and diverse feelings on the subject of marijuana use.

Last summer the Pew Research Center surveyed nearly 8,000 police officers across the country and found that more than two-thirds of them believe the drug should be legal for either personal or medical use.

Here’s the breakdown: 32 percent of offices said marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use, 37 percent said it should only be legal for medical use, and 30 percent said the drug should not be legal at all.

The findings mean that police officers are far more conservative on the issue than the American people in general — 49 percent of whom support fully legalizing recreational use, and only 15 percent of whom believe it should be completely illegal.

There’s likely multiple reasons for that divergence. One, as pointed out by members of the organization Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, is that many officers are still being trained with outdated materials dedicated to the country’s failed war on drugs.

That brings us back to a point we’ve made numerous times: the federal government’s draconian marijuana policies aren’t merely unhelpful and out-of-step with public opinion, they’re causing manifest harm. Scientific research is being needlessly delayed; people’s lives are being needlessly derailed by criminal charges and prison sentences. States like Pennsylvania — which last year became the 24th state to legalize medical marijuana — have to risk flouting federal laws to connect patients with products that will improve their quality of life.

The feds don’t care. In August the Drug Enforcement Administration turned down two petitions requesting that marijuana be removed from its list of Schedule I drugs, where it ridiculously sits alongside substances like heroin and LSD.

DEA officials have, for decades, refused to listen to the will (and the common sense) of the American people. Now they have evidence that many of the officers charged with keeping our communities safe share those same feelings.

Will it make any difference? It should, but don’t hold your breath.