A majority of the public want cannabis legalised or decriminalised, including a majority of Conservative and Labour voters.
Most British people want cannabis legalised or decriminalised and two thirds want a comprehensive review of drugs policy, according to a new poll by Ipsos MORI.
Over half the public (53%) support the legalisation or decriminalisation of the possession of cannabis, and only 1 in 7 believe in tougher penalties and more money being spent on enforcement for cannabis offences.
Interestingly the survey, which sampled 946 adults between January 25 and February 5, also looked at attitudes to drugs based on newspaper readership and found some surprising results.
It found that 45% of mid-market newspaper readers (including readers of the Daily Mail and the Express) support the legalisation of cannabis, and just one in five (17%) support heavier penalties and more money spent on enforcement.
Among tabloid readers the figures were 47% and 20% respectively.
According to the data, 61% of Daily Mail readers want a full review of drug policy.
Surprisingly perhaps, 70% of Conservative supporters compared to 69% of Labour supporters believe a full review of all the drug policy options is required.
A spokesperson from drugs think tank Transform said the results show how far ahead of politicians the public are.
“Politicians have repeated their ‘tough on drugs’ propaganda for so long that they assume the public are more fearful of change than they really are. In fact the world has changed, and the public are far more progressive than was thought, right across the political spectrum.
53 Responses to “Majority want cannabis legalised or decriminalised”
TransformDrugPolicy
from our polling on the cannabis question 21% wantede the law to stay the same, 14% wanted harsher enforcement and 53% wanted legalisation (41%) or decrimianlisation (12%). There were seperate quations on support for review of all options (67%) and potugal style decrim (40%). Its all perfectly transparent.
Mick
Though given the perils of even legal pot, the market wouldn’t even need to be heavily regulated as the drug itself would do its own damage:
Yeah, legal: http://www.cracked.com/article_19609_5-horrible-things-nobody-tells-you-about-legally-growing-pot.html
Mick
KEEPING LAW THE SAME figures from the table, we see much higher figures time and again: 53%, 67%, 53%, etc. Constant highs, rarely going lower than fifty.
Reading across, the legalisation figures are consistently lower, as per the other options. Doesn’t matter the category. The figures are there.
http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/SRI_Transform_poll_drugs.pdf
And even if the paper does say that most people wanted pot legal, that’s only speaking before the ravages of wickedness. Bit like when people voted Labour in 1997. But the damage soon comes.
Legalised drugs like opium in the Victorian age crippled kids and killed healthy adults.
Mick
I looked at the illegal drugs table, which is wider in scope than looking at pot alone and is far more accurate a gauge.
Peter Reynolds
That’s a great link Mick! First useful thing you’ve posted. You are entertaining though.