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"99 Percent Say No." If hard drugs such as heroin or cocaine were legalized would you be likely to use them? Zogby International asked that question of 1,028 likely voters. Ninety-nine out of 100 said "No." Only 0.6 percent said "Yes."

This public service advertisement appeared in the National Review, the New Republic, the American Prospect, The Nation, Reason Magazine, and The Progressive in the winter of 2008.

A camera-ready copy of this PSA is available in Portable Document Format (PDF).
If hard drugs such as heroin
or cocaine were legalized
would you be likely to use them?
99% SAY "NO"
   Zogby International asked that question of 1,028 likely voters. Ninety-nine out of 100 said "No." Only 0.6 percent said "Yes."1

   Drug War advocates have always insisted that addiction would explode if drugs were legalized. But that argument comes apart under the weight of the evidence. While a poll can't predict actual drug use, it clearly shows that most of us avoid hard drugs because of common sense – not fear of arrest.

   And that's always been the case. At the beginning of the last century when a virtual free market for drugs existed, use rates were lower than they are today.2 Drug use and addiction – along with crime, violence and corruption – only began to climb after the advent of drug prohibition in 1914.3

   Isn't it time to end the War on Drugs? Let's turn addiction problems over to the people who dealt with them effectively before 1914 – doctors, nurses and health care professionals.
Common Sense for Drug Policy
www.CommonSenseDrugPolicy.org  www.DrugWarFacts.org
www.ManagingChronicPain.org  www.MedicalMJ.org
www.TreatingDrugAddiction.org
info@csdp.org
1. Zogby America Poll of Likely Voters 10/24/07 thru 10/27/07, "If hard drugs such as heroin or cocaine were legalized, would you be likely to use them?" sponsored by StoptheDrugWar.org, full results and other info online at stopthedrugwar.org. 2. Speaking out against drug legalization, US Drug Enforcement Administration, and Courtwright, David T., "Dark Paradise: A History of Opiate Addiction in America" (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), p. 9; 3. Courtwright, "Dark Paradise," 2001.

Research notes - 99 Percent Say No
  1. Zogby America Poll of Likely Voters 10/24/07 thru 10/27/07, "If hard drugs such as heroin or cocaine were legalized, would you be likely to use them?" From the web at http://stopthedrugwar.org/files/zogby_legalization_question.pdf last accessed Dec. 31, 2007
  2. "Legalization of drugs will lead to increased use," Speaking out against drug legalization, US Drug Enforcement Administration, from the web at http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/demand/speakout/06so.htm last accessed Dec. 31, 2007
    • "By 1900, about one American in 200 was either a cocaine or opium addict."
      Source: "Legalization of drugs will lead to increased use," Speaking out against drug legalization, US Drug Enforcement Administration, from the web at http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/demand/speakout/06so.htm last accessed Dec. 31, 2007;
    • "Although each type of data has its limitations (which will be analyzed in detail), it is nevertheless possible to reach certain general conclusions: the rate of opiate addiction in America increased throughout the nineteenth century, from not more than 0.72 addicts per thousand persons prior to 1842 to a maximum of 4.59 per thousand in the 1890s; thereafter the rate began a sustained decline. In round figures there were never more than 313,000 opiate addicts in America prior to 1914."
      Source: Courtwright, David T., "Dark Paradise: A History of Opiate Addiction in America" (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), p. 9;
    • "In 2006, an estimated 22.6 million persons aged 12 or older were classified with substance dependence or abuse in the past year (9.2 percent of the population aged 12 or older). Of these, 3.2 million were classified with dependence on or abuse of both alcohol and illicit drugs, 3.8 million were dependent on or abused illicit drugs but not alcohol, and 15.6 million were dependent on or abused alcohol but not illicit drugs."
      Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2007). Results from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings (Office of Applied Studies, NSDUH Series H-32, DHHS Publication No. SMA 07-4293), Rockville, MD, p. 69.
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