UK 'increasingly tolerant' of cannabis use

Tuesday, 15 July 2003 12:00 AM

41% of people now support the legalisation of cannabis, according to the latest study by the Economic ad Social Research Council.

That indicates a significant shift in public opinion in the last two decades, with just 12% backing such a measure in 1983.

Heroin, cocaine, tobacco and alcohol all beat cannabis in a poll of substances most likely to cause harm to regular users.

Nina Stratford of the National Centre for Social Research noted that although liberal attitudes were most common among the young, the highly educated, and Londoners, they were not confined to those groups.

"It is a society-wide phenomenon affecting all ages and social backgrounds," she noted.

However, the ESRC suggests that there are still clear limits to what is acceptable in the area of illegal drug-taking, and very few participants - just 8% - endorsed the view that adults should be free to take any drugs they wish.

Views towards harder drugs such as heroin remained very negative, and interestingly recreational drugs such as ecstasy were also condemned, equal proportions of people stating that both ecstasy and heroin should remain illegal.

Only 7% of people agreed with the statement that the club drug was not as damaging as is generally perceived.

This would seem suggest public backing to David Blunkett's recent drug reforms, in which he refused to listen to campaigners who wanted to downgrade ecstasy, but responded to the more tolerant public attitude towards cannabis by making it a class C drug.

Possession of cannabis for personal consumption is now not an arrestable offence, a move that is designed to free up police resources to tackle more serious drug problems.

Tags: