A poll recently commissioned by Lib Dems for Drug Policy Reform and conducted by Vision Critical shows that 70 per cent of people are in favour of cannabis being legalised.
A poll recently commissioned by Lib Dems for Drug Policy Reform and conducted by Vision Critical shows that 70 per cent of people are in favour of cannabis being legalised. It also shows that more people are in favour of legalising amphetamines (speed), magic mushrooms and mephedrone (the drug recently banned by the government) than are in favour of keeping them prohibited.
For ecstasy there is still a small majority in favour of prohibition (54%) but 39% are in favour of legalisation in some form. Even heroin and cocaine have around a third of people who want to see them legalised. What these findings show is not just that over two thirds of people think that cannabis should be legal, it is that even across other drugs there is not a huge consensus in favour of prohibition either.
At the very least this could be interpreted as there being scope for a proper debate about the future of drugs policy that includes all options and that such an approach would not be as “politically toxic” as many politicians seem to fear. This poll should go some way towards reassuring them that this is not the case.
The poll took a slightly different approach to previous ones in this field. It outlines three scenarios, “Light regulation”, “Strict government control and regulation” and “Prohibition”. It then detailed what each of those categories mean and asked people to say which category they thought a number of currently legal and prohibited drugs should go into.
Some of the demographic breakdown information from the results is interesting too. For example, there is no significant difference between the three different age ranges (18-34, 35-54, 55+) across the different drugs and categories people want to see. There is also little difference between supporters of the main parties; perhaps the results of this poll could be interpreted as giving “permission” for politicians to have that full and open debate.
You can read more information including a more detailed breakdown of the poll methodology and results here. You can also view an interview I conducted back in January with Professor David Nutt, former head of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs which touched upon some of the issues raised by this poll here.
28 Responses to “Poll shows 70% of people in the UK think cannabis should be legalised”
Mr. Sensible
I am totally opposed to doing that.
These drugs are very harmful, and from what I can gather for not much gain.
And as for Professer Nutt, the then Home Secretary was entirely correct to get rid of him; I brand his comparison between 1 drug and riding a horse as unhelpful.
This seems to me a bit of a ‘can’t beat them? join them!’ approach, and I am totally opposed to it.
Liz McShane
Anon
….”90% of the UK population believe Capital Punishment…”
What’s your source for this statistic?
Mark Thompson
Mr Sensible – Some of these drugs can indeed be very harmful (as can alcohol and tobacco and all sorts of other things of course). This is why we need to look again at whether they could be legalised and regulated. At the moment the markets are left entirely open to criminal gangs who cut drugs with all sorts of dreadful substances that make taking them even more dangerous and of course the purity and strength of what people are taking is highly variable too sometimes leading to overdoses. This sort of harm would be greatly reduced under a legal framework.
Why is comparing the harm caused by a drug and the harm caused by a risky sport unhelpful? What is it about drugs that makes people think they are in a special category all of their own that means they their use cannot be compared with anything else? How are we ever going to be able to ascertain the harm they can cause and how best to mitigate this if we refuse to engage in even a basic debate about relative harms?
As for your final comment. Who excatly are we supposed to be “beating”? Millions of people in the UK take drugs regularly most of whom manage this with their lives perfectly well and are otherwise completely law abiding. Are you suggesting we should be tackling all of them? The current legal regime does not work and it is time for fresh thinking.
We can only make progress in reducing the harm and crime that drugs cause by recognising the way we have been trying to do this for the last 40 years has fundamentally failed.
Destiny
Poll shows 70% of people in the UK think cannabis should be …: A poll recently commissioned by Lib Dems for Drug… http://bit.ly/bEWP4c
Martin Day
RT @leftfootfwd: Poll shows 70% of people in the UK think cannabis should be legalised: http://bit.ly/djbW9A