Six million new cannabis users if cannabis is legalised says new Civitas polling
New polling shows a million young adults (age 18-24) would try cannabis for the first time if the
UK legalised cannabis.
More than 1.5 million parents of primary school children would take up cannabis if it were
legalised.
Seven in ten parents back police using stop and search tactics to take cannabis off the streets.
The new children and families unit at Civitas has today published a new poll of UK parents to give
them a voice in the debate over cannabis legalisation. We also wanted to hear their views on how
schools and the police should deal with cannabis.
Deltapoll asked 4,451 UK adults about their own cannabis use with a second poll asking 1,029 UK
parents about their attitudes to cannabis. Both polls are nationally representative and give a true
picture of public opinion.
This new research shows:
One in three parents told pollsters that ordering cannabis was as ‘easy as ordering a Pizza’ with
London and Scotland the easiest places to get hold of cannabis in the UK.
6 in 10 parents want the police to be tougher on under-age cannabis, a figure that jumps to 7 in
10 non-white parents.
7 in 10 parents back the use of stop and search to get cannabis off the streets, a figure that was
even higher for non-white parents at 8 in 10.
Although just over half (53%) of all parents support legalising cannabis in line with most polls of the
public. However, parents back tough action on cannabis including schools acting to keep classrooms
cannabis free:
47% of the UK’s parents back schools who call in the police if cannabis use is suspected among
pupils. Non-white parents are the most supportive of schools bringing the police into schools.
4 in 10 parents think schools should routinely test and search pupils for cannabis with half of
non-white parents saying the same.
Only 8 per cent of parents saying the move would stop drug dealers targeting young people.
According to ex-London mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey who has supported this work “this is the
moment parents fight back against politicians” desperate to legalise drugs.
Calculations based on our large scale poll of almost 4,500 UK adults found that 5.85million adults
who haven’t used cannabis in the last ten years would try it if it were legalised.
Policymakers and government ministers should be wary of any rush to legalise cannabis. British
parents think it would make their job harder, would do nothing to stop the likelihood of their
children being targeted by drug dealers and overwhelmingly want the police to take a tougher
approach to cannabis on the streets.
- ISBN13 9781912581313
- Publish Date 1 July 2022
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Civitas
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 22
- Language English