Cannabis News Media Awareness Project
  Public Endorses Police Soft Line on Cannabis
Posted by FoM on July 17, 2001 at 08:09:46 PT
By Alan Travis, Home Affairs Editor 
Source: Guardian Unlimited 

cannabis Two out of three people agree that police should not make prosecution for possession of cannabis a priority, according to the results of the July Guardian - ICM opinion poll. The survey implies widespread public endorsement for the six-month experiment in Lambeth under which police are not charging people found with small amounts of cannabis in their possession.

The ICM survey found that 65% of voters said that cannabis possession should be the lowest priority for the police when they were asked to compare its importance with street robbers, burglars, heroin users and car thieves.

Fifty-seven per cent also thought that police operations targeting cannabis dealers should have a lower priority than using resources to tackle drink driving (11%), sex assaults (3%), racial violence (5%) and heroin dealers (4%). When asked to choose which should have the lowest priority some 21% said they did not know.

The findings will be a significant boost to those who want to reform Britain's drugs laws and indicates that the recent debate does reflect a change in public attitudes. Only 18% now say that the personal use of cannabis should remain a criminal act with typical penalties of a caution or a fine.

Some 27% now say that the personal use of cannabis should remain illegal but the police should not make prosecution a priority. This is significant because last year 97,000 people were prosecuted and mostly fined or cautioned for possession of cannabis. A small number were jailed.

A further 37% - a growing proportion - say that the personal use of cannabis should be legalised now. Opposition is strongest among the over-65s where only 27% support legalisation.

But among the 25 to 34-year-old age group support for lifting the ban completely rises to 45%. Interestingly among 18 to 24-year-olds, support is slightly weaker with 40% saying dope should be legalised.

There is not much difference between the views of men, of whom 39% say legalise, and women, of whom 34% also support legalisation.

Although it has been Conservative politicians such as Peter Lilley who have recently set the pace over the legalisation debate, it is a policy which is far more popular with Labour and Liberal Democrat voters than Conservative ones. Some 42% to 43% of Labour and Liberal Democrat voters back legalisation compared to 33% of Tory voters.

The strength of the campaign to decriminalise cannabis possession is also reflected in people's attitudes towards the health risks involved in the drug. Some 48% agree that using cannabis is no worse than drinking or smoking. One in three voters (34%) disagree and believe it is more dangerous.

These figures are slightly down from the last Guardian/ICM poll to ask the same question in October 2000 when 53% agreed it was no worse than alcohol or nicotine and 34% disagreed. The difference is made by a significant growth in the "don't knows", from 9% to 17%, indicating a growing confusion in the debate.

The poll results are in line with the findings of repeated "sweeps" of the British Crime Survey in the 1990s which showed that 25% of everyone aged 16 to 29 had tried cannabis in the previous 12 months. That represents about 2.5m people.

A total of 16% or 1.5m people admitted to BCS researchers that they had used cannabis in the last month. The ICM poll findings also echo research for the Police Foundation inquiry into the drug laws which found that cannabis is seen as a special case by the British public and should not be a priority for police prosecution.

ICM interviewed a random sample of 1,001 adults across the country by telephone between 13-15 July 2001. The results have been weighted to the profile of all adults.

Note: ICM poll: 65% of people believe prosecution for possession should be lowest priority.

Source: Guardian Unlimited, The (UK)
Author: Alan Travis, Home Affairs Editor
Published: Tuesday, July 17, 2001
Copyright: 2001 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact: letters@guardian.co.uk
Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/

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Comment #4 posted by Spiderman on July 18, 2001 at 03:44:15 PT
Kaptinemo
A delightful idea, truly, but this is England, old chap. Besides, we simply don't have the quantities of fire-arms required for revolt over here :-)

Although it would seem that the slumbering masses on the Labour Party back-benches are starting to wake up. A rebellion over the dismissal and subsequent vote to reinstate Donald Anderson onto the Foreign Affairs Select Committee (I suppose this didn't make too many US papers :-) ) showed that the back-benches are starting to exercise their free wills again. Now that Jon Owen Jones is using his own parliamentary time to debate the issue, maybe something will happen? Don't expect miracles, but this is a big step in the right direction.

Who knows, old chap. Who knows?

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #3 posted by lookinside on July 17, 2001 at 18:38:49 PT:

they just don't get it...
i wonder how many respondents would admit to torturing pets
in the last 5 years? how about shoplifting?

any time a poll, even those claiming strict confidentiality,
asks a question about illegal behaviors, there will be a
percentage of those polled who will NOT tell the truth...the
real numbers are higher...


[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #2 posted by Doug on July 17, 2001 at 09:06:45 PT
Amazing
These figures, like the percentage that voted recently in Alaska for complete legalization (40%) are amazing, considering the amount of anti-marijuana propagada that has appeared in the press over the last 35 years. I wonder what the precentage would have been if the truth had been told. It's gratifying to see that people will give there own experience considerable weight as opposed to the government/media line. And since increasingly large numbers of people have experience with marijuana either directly or indirectly, it's becoming increasingly hard to fool the people, although they keep making the (increasingly more futile, as we've witnessed in postings here) attempt.

It looks like Lenny Bruce's prediction that marijuana would become legal once enough lawyers had tried it will finally come true, though several decades later than he imagined. Likewise for Dr. Grinsppon's simialr prediction in his Marijuana Reconsidered. Why does History take such a long time?

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on July 17, 2001 at 08:42:54 PT:

When the people lead...
...the leaders follow... but first they have to be dragged kicking and screaming in petulant fits away from their hog troughs and have their snouts whacked a few times to pay proper attention.

The people of Great Britain are signalling the single largest-to-date 'vote of no confidence' in the DrugWar. If the Blair regime doesn't heed this for what it is, Labour's recent victory at the polls could well be one of the
shortest-lived in British history. Because the Brits just might get the idea to make an electoral 'vote of no confidence' on the present government, there.

Now that would scare the bejeezus out of DrugWarriors evryehere; a major Western government unseated because of unpopular drug laws. Might give other people the same ideas, hmmm....?



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