Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Cannabis should be legal and tobacco should be made illegal, according to a new survey for young people.
Student Money Saver (SMS) polled 1,000 people under the age of 30 to get their views on alcohol and drug use and found high numbers of people were saying substances currently against the law should be made legal.
Over half said they know someone with an alcohol addiction problem and a further 250 people said alcohol should be make illegal.
The main point drawn from the results was that over half of young people thought that cannabis should be legal.
Worryingly, the survey found high numbers of people used drugs and alcohol while alone.
Almost 43 per cent of people said they drink alone, 73 per cent sometimes use drugs by themselves and 63 per cent say they have had a blackout in the past year because of drugs and alcohol.
One teen – who wished to remain anonymous – thinks making drugs legal would stop illegal drug trafficking and added: “The fact that alcohol and tobacco are legal is just hypocritical. They are bad if not worse.”
Another teen believes making drugs illegal is pointless, as “it won’t stop people using them”, and a third interviewee thought the taxpayer took too much responsibility for drug abusers: “They all most likely cause serious health problems which cost us millions to fix every year.”
SMS said the results show young people’s interest in trying drugs is “lessening” but, at the same time, the under 30s group is adopting an “anything goes” attitude.
A spokesperson added: “On the negative side, it’s worrying that 45 per cent of students thought their university has a ‘druggy culture’, 15 per cent of the young still say they’d tried drugs due to ‘peer pressure’ and well over half of those surveyed said they know someone with a drug or alcohol problem.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments