As was the case last year, a majority of respondents voice support for legalizing marijuana, but not other illegal drugs.

A large proportion of Americans acknowledge that the country has a serious drug abuse problem, but two thirds believe that the so-called “War on Drugs” has been ineffective, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.

In the online survey of a representative national sample of 1,003 adults, 64 per cent of respondents believe America has a serious drug abuse problem that affects the whole country. One-in-five (20%) believe America’s drug abuse problem is confined to specific areas and people, while seven per cent believe America does not have a serious drug abuse problem.

Two thirds of respondents (65%) believe the “War on Drugs”—the efforts of the U.S. government to reduce the illegal drug trade—has been a failure, while only eight per cent deem it a success.

Legalization of Drugs

More than half of respondents (52%) support the legalization of marijuana. While clear majorities of Democrats (57%) and Independents (59%) agree with this course of action, only about two-in-five Republicans (38%) concur.

Support for the legalization of other illegal substances is considerably lower. Only 10 per cent of respondents agree with legalizing ecstasy, eight per cent would consent to legalizing heroin, powder cocaine and methamphetamine or “crystal meth”, and just seven per cent would allow crack cocaine to be legal.

Mexico

A majority of Americans hold favorable views on Mexican food (78%) and the Mexican people (59%), while about a third provide a positive assessment of Mexican beer (34%) and immigrants from Mexico who live in the United States (32%). However, only seven per cent of respondents have a favorable opinion of the Mexican government.

It is important to note that respondents who have travelled to Mexico in their lifetime are more likely to have a favorable opinion of each one of the five entities tested than those who have never been to the Latin American country.

In all, half of Americans (49%) believe Mexico deserves most of the blame for being a major supplier of illegal drugs to the U.S. because it has allowed the drug cartels to grow and flourish. Democrats (45%) are less likely than Republicans (59%) to feel this way.

However, one third of Americans (34%) think the U.S. deserves most of the blame for this situation, for having a population that demands illegal drugs.

While respondents in the Northeast are almost evenly split on this issue, a majority of those in the South and the West blame Mexico for the current state of affairs.

Our previous poll on drugs in the United States, conducted in December 2009, is available here.

Full Report, Detailed Tables and Methodology (PDF)

CONTACT:

Mario Canseco, Vice President, Public Affairs
+877 730 3570
mario.canseco@angus-reid.com

Methodology: From July 14 to July 15, 2010, Angus Reid Public Opinion conducted an online survey among 1,003 American adults who are Springboard America panelists. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 3.1%. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and region Census data to ensure a sample representative of the entire adult population of the United States.