By: Sabrina Sousa
Do you think drugs should be decriminalized? Do you think decriminalizing them would lead to more people speaking out and getting help with their addictions, because there is less of a stigma? Or do you believe decriminalizing them would increase drug usage because there would be more access to them and people would be more likely to experiment because it cannot be punished for? Or are you somewhere in the middle?
I created a survey to answer just about all these questions.
About My Survey:
I created a survey based on drug decriminalization to random sample individuals to see if people believed that drugs should be decriminalized. My survey also made people explain their answer of why they think drugs should be decriminalized or why they should remain criminalized.
First I asked about the demographic of my audience to get a better view of how the age ranges differ in their opinions of decriminalization. Then I proceeded to ask questions about if they have used drugs that have been considered illegal in their past, and then questions of why they think drugs should or should not be decriminalized.
My sample size consisted of 25 people and had a wide range of age groups and races. I chose people with different cultural backgrounds and varying amount of life experience so that I could get a general view and unbiased results. The majority of my answers however, were either females or fell under the age range of 18–24.
In this study I learned that a lot more people are in favor of drug decriminalization than I believed prior, even people from older age groups and people who have never tried drugs, and that my results showed a lack of education people have on the topic of drug decriminalization.
Results:
The majority of my answers reflected that drugs should be decriminalized and that if they were decriminalized that the usage would remain the same. Some people from all age groups selected that they believe drugs should be decriminalized, which was surprising to me. I thought only the younger audience would believe in decriminalization so it was interesting to see that more adults are in favor of decriminalization than I believed prior. Also, some people who marked that they had never done drugs before voted in favor of decriminalization. This shows that you do not have to do drugs in order to be in favor of not letting people be punished for using drugs.
Why Do You Think Someone Would Oppose the Decriminalization of Drugs?
No answer given was factual enough to prove that decriminalization should be opposed. This question needed a free response answer. The question was “Why do you think someone would oppose drug decriminalization?”. The answers varied in description but all of them stayed within the realms of five topics. From the data I collected the reason people would oppose decriminalization of drugs is because they believe criminalization creates a sense of consequences in order for people to not do drugs, it would increase experimentation with drugs among the population, it would increase drug addiction rates, it would increase crime rates, and because people associate drugs with “bad” people.
I thought the answers related to crime rates increasing and people associating drugs with “bad” people were interesting responses. These answers further prove the stigma against drugs and that drugs are bad and only for bad people. People are ignorant to the amount of beneficial things drugs could do but also are unaware of how jail does not help a person with their problems of drug abuse.
Why Do You Think Someone Would Support the Decriminalization of Drugs?
Comparing these free response answers to the last free response answers was where I was able to see the lack of education on the topic because of the very contradictory answers. For this free response question I asked was “Why do you think someone would support drug decriminalization?”. These responses also kept a similar main points; the five main points brought up were drug decriminalization should be supported because it would decrease our incarcerated population, reduce drug addiction rates, it would decrease crime rates, it allows for rehabilitation for drug users and not punishment, and lastly people who support decriminalization are drug users.
These results were interesting because the belief that it will decrease crime and reduce addiction is the exact opposite of what others answered in the last free response question. This shows how black and white people are on the topic of drug decriminalization, as well as it shows the lack of education and misguided information among the population and my sample.
An answer that was debunked earlier in my survey was the response of people who support decriminalization are the ones doing drugs. Many people in my survey responded that they have never done any drugs that have been once considered illegal and yet also voted in favor for the decriminalization of drugs.
The most popular answer with 10 people answering the free response question was an answer based around people needing rehabilitation and not punishment. This is probably one of the main reasons people support decriminalization because it is focused more on getting people help than letting people be punished for using drugs.
Will Drug Usage Increase, Decrease, or Remain the Same?
When asking my sample audience if they thought that drug usage would increase, decrease, or remain the same the answers varied; however, the majority was that people believed drug usage would remain the same which shows the lack of harm for decriminalization.
People believe that no matter what happens with the decriminalization of drugs either way the drug usage will remain the same. I am interested in these results because many people in the free response questions believed it would either increase or decrease.
What we can gather from this answer is that people do not think decriminalization would cause a significant change in the amount of people using drugs.
What I Learned From My Results?
From these results it has become clear to me that many people are in favor of decriminalizing drugs, even non-drug users and older adults. I also noticed that many people had very contradicting answers, which shows me that there is not enough education being spread on the topic.
This study also affected the focus on my paper to want to talk about the lack of education people get on decriminalizing drugs, since it is not really a popular topic, which could lead to people wanting to oppose it solely based off its name.