Whisper
April 18th, 2010, 04:50 PM
Most Canadians believe they should be free to toke with impunity -- but their tolerance for marijuana use doesn't extend to other, harder drugs, according to a new national poll.
The Angus Reid poll, released yesterday, also shows many Canadians (42 per cent) believe Canada has a serious nationwide drug abuse problem and 70 per cent want mandatory minimum prison sentences and fines for drug dealers and marijuana grow operators.
"As was the case two years ago, a majority of Canadians (53 per cent) support the legalization of marijuana," said an Angus Reid media release.
Three provinces saw the highest levels of support for legalization: British Columbia (61 per cent), Alberta (59 per cent) and Ontario (57 per cent).
The online survey of 1,010 Canadians between April 8-9 showed that support for legalization of hard drugs "is negligible" -- less than one in 10 voiced support for legalizing hard drugs. The margin of error for the survey is plus or minus 3.1 per cent.
The poll shows 83 per cent of Canadians support the federal government's National Anti-Drug Strategy awareness campaign to discourage young Canadians from using drugs.
But only slightly more than a third of Canadians support the idea of eliminating harm-reduction programs such as supervised injection sites and needle-exchange programs.
In B.C., where the federal government waged a fight to close Vancouver's Insite supervised injection site, 64 per cent of respondents said such programs should continue.
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist
Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/leads+nation+support+legalization/2914355/story.html#ixzz0lUThJnlZ
The Angus Reid poll, released yesterday, also shows many Canadians (42 per cent) believe Canada has a serious nationwide drug abuse problem and 70 per cent want mandatory minimum prison sentences and fines for drug dealers and marijuana grow operators.
"As was the case two years ago, a majority of Canadians (53 per cent) support the legalization of marijuana," said an Angus Reid media release.
Three provinces saw the highest levels of support for legalization: British Columbia (61 per cent), Alberta (59 per cent) and Ontario (57 per cent).
The online survey of 1,010 Canadians between April 8-9 showed that support for legalization of hard drugs "is negligible" -- less than one in 10 voiced support for legalizing hard drugs. The margin of error for the survey is plus or minus 3.1 per cent.
The poll shows 83 per cent of Canadians support the federal government's National Anti-Drug Strategy awareness campaign to discourage young Canadians from using drugs.
But only slightly more than a third of Canadians support the idea of eliminating harm-reduction programs such as supervised injection sites and needle-exchange programs.
In B.C., where the federal government waged a fight to close Vancouver's Insite supervised injection site, 64 per cent of respondents said such programs should continue.
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist
Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/leads+nation+support+legalization/2914355/story.html#ixzz0lUThJnlZ