"Americans Say Drug
War Should Continue" --
You Can Fool Most Of The Pollsters Most Of The Time
The Journal of the American Medical Association has an article by Robert Blendon and John Young of Harvard School of Public Health which says surveys over the last two decades show most Americans believe the government’s "war on drugs" has failed but that more money should be spent on it. This may seem to be non-sense, but this merely demonstrates one of problems with the "war" analogy. Just because we haven’t won, this does not mean that we can "surrender."
Summarizing 47 national surveys conducted over the past 20 years, the researchers found that 78 percent of the public believes anti-drug efforts have failed and that 66 percent were willing to pay more taxes to fight drug use. More than half those surveyed thought the drug problem had grown worse.
"Despite this assessment, they continue to support greater resources being expended in generally the same policy direction as has been followed in the past," they say.
On the other hand, roughly 60 percent of those polled supported allowing physicians to prescribe medical marijuana for seriously ill patients. This demonstrates a clear failure of prohibitionist propaganda, and consequently, this number will be studiously ignored by prohibitionists.
Supposedly, about two-thirds of the public think that illegal drug use is "morally wrong," but this means little for public policy. If they had been asked if they think that adultery is "morally wrong," even more of the public would say "yes," but this would not mean that they would support a massive police crack down on it. After all, President Clinton has suffered enough
While 82 percent rated illegal drug use as a big problem for society, only 27 percent thought it was a major problem in their communities and 81 percent said drug abuse never caused problems in their own families. This point demonstrates that most of the concern about "drugs" is based on news reports and other prohibitionist propaganda about other peoples’ problems.
Among 19 options designed to reduce the use and effect of illegal drugs, the largest share of public support was for more severe penalties for dealing and possession, followed by more anti-drug education and increased funding for police. This is clearly the result of demonizing "drug-users" and misleading information about the cost effectiveness of rehabilitation. This is hardly surprising when politicians compete to see who can propose the most severe penalties and the police are the principle voices for prohibition.
Only 14 percent of the public supported drug legalization, and slightly more than half said they believe drug-related crime would rise if drugs were legalized. It should be noted that asking someone if "drugs should be legalized" really invites a negative response. What does the question mean?
Does it mean putting crack vending machines in schools? This is essentially what prohibitionists claim that anti-prohibitionists want to do.
It also says nothing about marijuana prohibition as a separate issue.
Anti-prohibitionists may be discouraged by this, but I am not. When one considers that there are people in Russia who still revere Stalin, and there are even Americans who think that Hitler was just misunderstood, it is hardly surprising that after decades of relentless prohibitionist propaganda and/or irresponsible journalism most Americans give the answers expected of them.
The report estimated that illicit drugs led to about 11,000 deaths annually in the United States. The U.S. government annually spends about $27 billion directly on fighting the war on drugs, it said. If the people had been given comparable figures on the death toll from over-the-counter and prescription drugs prior to being asked these questions they might have given different answers.