Cannabis should be legal and tobacco illegal, under-30s tell new survey

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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.”