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Rethinking the generation gap

Attitudes to illicit drugs among young people and adults

Geoffrey Pearson

Goldsmiths College, UK

Michael Shiner

Goldsmiths College, UK, m.shiner{at}gold.ac.uk

This article presents data from a secondary analysis of two public opinion surveys that were commissioned by the Independent Inquiry into the Misuse of Drugs Act, which reported in 2000. It is largely concerned with how young people and adults assess the harms associated with different illicit drugs. The first survey indicates that children aged 11 years see all illicit drugs as equally harmful, but as they grow into their teenage years they come to distinguish cannabis from the rest. The second survey canvassed the opinions of adults aged 16—59 years, and finds fundamental agreement between adults of all ages that cannabis is the least harmful of drugs, including alcohol and tobacco. In conclusion, we discuss the implications of these findings for policy and for sociological understanding of the place and meaning of illicit drugs in modern Britain.

Key Words: drugs • generation gap • law • public attitudes

Criminology and Criminal Justice, Vol. 2, No. 1, 71-86 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/17488958020020010401
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