The Civitas think tank conducted a new poll and found that nearly 6 million people would attempt cannabis for the first-time if it was legalized.
Sadiq Khan, London Mayor of London, calls for legalization. This would allow an additional 800,000. Londoners to take up cannabis for the very first time. This would be the largest surge in new cannabis users in the country.
Deltapoll polled 4,451 UK adults regarding their cannabis use. The second poll asked 1,029 UK parents their attitudes about cannabis. Both polls are representative of the entire population and reflect true public opinion.
It was discovered that one million young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 would be open to trying cannabis for the very first time if the UK legalized it.
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Legalization of cannabis would lead to the legalization of cannabis by more than 1.5 million primary school students.
Seven out of ten parents support police using stop-and-search tactics to take marijuana off the streets. This figure was higher for parents of black or minority ethnic origin (8 in 10).
1 in 3 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.
7 in 10 parents of minorities and black children want the police force to crack down on cannabis use among their children under 18.
Just 53 percent (or more than half) of parents support legalizing cannabis, in line with most polls.
However, almost half the parents support schools calling police if there is suspicion of cannabis use among their children. Parents of black and minority ethnic families are most supportive of schools inviting the police to schools.
4 out 10 parents believe schools should routinely test for cannabis in children. Half of parents from minority and black families agree.
Only 8 percent of parents believed that the move would stop drug dealers targeting young people.
Calculations based on the think tank’s large-scale poll of almost 4,500 UK adults found that 5.85 million adults who have not used cannabis in the last ten years would try it if it were legalised.
Frank Young, editorial director at Civitas and author of the report said: “This poll tells us that parents want the police and politicians to start getting tough on cannabis use and that calls to legalise cannabis are way off the mark. Are we going to need six million more users and a million more young people using cannabis?
“Parents are worried that politicians rushing to legalise drugs will make their job harder and put their children at risk. British parents are telling them they want the police to be out there using stop and search to take drugs off the streets,” he went on.
Former London mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey argued that “this is the moment parents fight back against politicians” aiming to legalise drugs.
Daniel Pryor, Head of Research at the Adam Smith Institute, said in light of the report: “We don’t need to guess how cannabis use would change post-legalisation because we have data from countries that have done so—underage use either falls or remains the same.
“But let’s not lose sight of the central finding here; just like the wider population, the majority of British parents want cannabis legalised and properly regulated.
“In our current system, drug dealers don’t ask kids for ID, teens are caught up in county lines gangs and cannabis-related criminal records ruin the life prospects of young people. Far from being caught up in a rush to legalise, politicians are lagging behind the public to the detriment of us all.”
