Doctoral Scholarship applicant
Polling public opinion on the legal regulation of drugs. Implications for drug policy reform.
In the United Kingdom, reaction from major political parties to suggestions of drug legalisation has been consistently negative or absent. The Liberal Democrats hold the legalisation of cannabis (when
UN conventions allow) as policy, but do not communicate this policy to the public. Polling of public opinionon the subject is usually in the form of a question asking whether a specific drug or any drugs should be “legalised” with no explanation of what regulations might be in place following legalisation.
Methods:
A poll of 2000 British citizens of voting age was commissioned through the Angus Reid polling organisation. It asked which regulatory scenario participants would find most tolerable for a series of commonly used legal and illegal drugs with the options being light regulation, strict government control and regulation, prohibition and “I know nothing about this drug.” Prior to making this choice participants were asked to read short descriptions of each regulatory scenario detailing how access would be restricted, how prices would be determined, who would profit from the trade and other features of each model.
Results:
For cannabis, 70% of participants favoured some level of legal regulation, with 33% favouring light regulation. 25% favoured prohibition. Mephedrone, amphetamines and magic mushrooms also saw majority support for legal regulation, while support for legal regulation of cocaine and heroin was at
36% and 30% respectively. Differences in opinion between supporters of the main political parties were not large, with the lowest support for legal regulation of cannabis being 67% among
Conservative supporters.
Discussion:
The results of this poll appear to suggest a considerable underestimation of public tolerance of the prospect of legal, regulated drugs markets, and indeed suggest any proposal for the strict government control and regulation of cannabis might be welcomed by the vast majority of the UK population. The poll indicates greater need for polling questions to be asked of more detailed drug policy proposals. It remains to be seen whether these results can be replicated by independent researchers using similar methods.
I should state that I am a full-time MSc student in Public Policy at the University of Glasgow and so ineligible if the scholarships are strictly only available to PhD students. The research referred to in the abstract was commissioned by me in my role as founder and interim chair of Liberal Democrats for Drug Policy Reform, a group within the Liberal Democrat party that is currently governing in the
UK in coalition with the Conservatives.
Following this poll, LDDPR have prepared a policy motion for the next Liberal Democrat conference in March that includes a firmer commitment to create a strictly regulated cannabis market in the UK

with harm reduction principles held as paramount. I will learn within the next month whether this motion has been accepted for debate and would be able to report to the conference on how Liberal
Democrat and UK drug policy responds to discussion of this motion if it is debated.
Ewan Hoyle phone: 07817536149 01416493809
E-mail: ewanhoyle@gmail.com
Address:
114 Durward Avenue, Shawlands, Glasgow, UK, G41 3SG