Citation

Borden D. Cardozo Public Law Policy Ethics J. 2014; 12.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Several years ago, my organization received funding for opinion research on some legislative issues. As part of the package offered by the polling firm, we got an additional question for free, and we decided to try something different. We asked: "If hard drugs like heroin or cocaine were legalized, would you be likely to use them?" 1 Out of 1,028 people surveyed, only six answered "yes." Nearly 99% said "no." (Four weren't sure.)

A survey of this type doesn't represent an analytic prediction about legalization, and shouldn't be interpreted that way. On the other hand, predictions about drug use post-legalization are inherently uncertain. What our question sought to probe was whether people have other reasons besides legality for their choice of which drugs to take. For so few of the respondents to answer "yes" - just 0.6% - suggests other factors besides legality play important roles in such choices. Academic discussions of drug policy actually tend not to frame the legalization question solely in terms of drug use. Use is one of the central elements in the equation. Another central element, equally if not more important, is the harm caused by drug control efforts. Serious thinkers with a range of viewpoints all agree on the seemingly counterintuitive notion that prohibiting a drug makes it more harmful to people who use it despite the prohibition, at least at the times they are using it, and creates other harms. It's further acknowledged some of prohibition's harms are...

Language: en