Dubious Consensus: Support for Anti-Drug Policy among Dutch and Canadian University Students

Abstract

Outside of the United States, how strong is public support for the severe anti-drug policies that have become the norm among Western nations? A fifty-item questionnaire revealed significantly stronger support among Canadian than among Dutch university students on many individual items and on four of five underlying factors. Notwithstanding the differences, both groups expressed a moderate degree of support for anti-drug policy. There were two indications, however, that the apparent support may be “soft” among these students. First, there was a marked polarization of opinion within both groups. Second, opinions changed markedly among Canadian students who completed a course that exposed them to criticism of current anti-drug policy. These findings raise the possibility that popular support for current anti-drug policy outside of the United States may not reflect a firm public consensus so much as the statistical average of divided populations that normally have little access to critical counterinformation.