And how does opinion differ within the general population?
In the past few years, several countries – including Germany, Luxembourg, Malta and Canada – as well as a multitude of US states, have legalised the possession and use of cannabis. Here in the UK, the Liberal Democrats pledged to legalise the purchase and consumption of cannabis in their 2024 election manifesto, the only main party to do so.
MPs have not voted on legalising cannabis since 2018, when proposals were voted down in a sparsely populated House of Commons, but a new YouGov survey offers insight into how a future vote might go.
The results show that 50% of MPs are opposed to cannabis legalisation when asked in a support/oppose format, compared to 39% who would be in support.
An alternative version of this question that YouGov also uses asks respondents to choose between legalisation, decriminalisation, and keeping the sale and possession of cannabis a criminal offence. When put this way, 25% of MPs continue to prefer the legalisation option, while 38% say they want it to be illegal – 28% of MPs chart the middle path of decriminalisation.
The large majority of MPs do, however, believe that doctors should be allowed to prescribe cannabis for medical use (83%). Only 7% are opposed.
When it comes to harder drugs, however, there is far more consensus: 81% of MPs say that sale and possession of drugs like heroin and crack cocaine should remain illegal, with only 4% preferring decriminalisation and 4% full legalisation.
On the broader issue of how drug use should be treated by the state and society, more MPs come down on the side of considering it a health issue (36%) than a criminal issue (11%) – although the largest number say they should be treated as both equally (51%).
How do MPs’ views on drugs differ from the wider public’s?
On the binary question of legalising cannabis, the British public are split, with 45% in favour and 42% opposed, making the public slightly more pro-legalisation than MPs.
We see a similar trend on the three-way question, with Britons slightly more likely to support the legalisation option (31%) than MPs, and slightly less likely to prefer the decriminalisation option (24%) or keeping cannabis illegal 33%.
There are, however, somewhat fewer Britons who think doctors should be allowed to prescribe cannabis for medical use (73%), with twice as many of the public opposed (14%) as MPs.
When it comes to harder drugs, the public’s view largely aligns with that of MPs, with 83% saying they should remain illegal, 7% saying they should be decriminalised, and 4% opting for legalisation.
And on the wider issue of how to treat the drugs problem, while the most common answer among the public is again that it should be seen equally as a health and criminal issue (40%), notably more Britons see drugs as more of a criminal issue than MPs did. More than a quarter (28%) say so, with 23% saying it should be seen as more of a health issue.
How do different social groups feel about drugs?
The results of the survey show that young people have more liberal attitudes towards drugs than their elders; voters for left wing parties take a softer approach than those who backed right wing parties; and men take a softer stance in some areas than women.
The British public’s view on drugs, by age
Those Britons in age groups under 50 generally support legalising cannabis on our binary question, while the over-50s tend to oppose it.
On our three-way question, 25-49 year olds come down most on the side of full legalisation (41%), whereas 18-24 year olds are more evenly divided between legalisation (31%) and decriminalisation (29%). The over-50 age groups prefer for cannabis to remain criminally prohibited at rates of 38-44%, the most common stance for these older Britons.
All age groups are, however, about equally strongly in favour of doctors being allowed to prescribe cannabis for medical use (71-75%).
When it comes to harder drugs, the majority in all age groups want to keep them banned, although 15-16% of the under-50s age groups take a softer stance, compared to 5-8% of their elder peers.
And on the matter of drugs being a health versus a criminal issue, younger Britons see it more as the former and older Britons more as the latter. More than a third of 18-24 year olds (37%) say drugs should be seen as more of a health issue, compared to 15% of the over-65s, who in turn are more likely to see drugs as more of a criminal issue (38%) than the youngest Britons (16%).
The British public’s view on drugs, by voting group
Conservative voters take the most notably hard line on drugs policy. Fully 64% oppose cannabis legalisation on our binary question, compared to 48% of Reform UK voters, 40% of Lib Dem voters, and 33% of Labour voters.
On the trinary question, the majority of Tories (55%) again opt to keep cannabis criminalised, compared to 38% of Reform UK voters, 29% of Lib Dems and 23% of Labour voters. For Reform UK voters this was also their most common choice, whereas Lib Dem voters are effectively split three ways on between legalisation, decriminalisation and criminalisation, while for Labour voters full legalisation is the most popular option, at 39%.
There is again, however, strong support among all main parties’ voters for doctors to be able to prescribe cannabis for medical reasons, at 68-80%.
And likewise, on harder drugs like heroin and crack cocaine, the large majority of voters for each party (80-93%) want to keep their sale and possession a criminal offence. Labour voters are the most likely to favour decriminalisation or legalisation of harder drugs, although only 14% feel this way.
When it comes to how to treat the drugs problem, the most common response among Conservative and Reform UK voters is that it is primarily a criminal issue, at 43-47%. Labour and Lib Dem voters are most likely to say that it is equally a health and a criminal issue, although those who come down more on one side than the other tend to see it as a health rather than criminal issue.
The British public’s view on drugs, by gender
When it comes to gender, men are more likely than women to support cannabis legalisation on both of our question types, although there is no difference between the sexes when it comes to doctors prescribing cannabis for medical use.
While the large majority of both genders prefer to keep harder drugs illegal, men are more likely than women to say they should be decriminalised or fully legalised (16% vs 7%).
And when it comes how to classify drug issues, men are more likely to come down on either side of the line than women. More than a quarter of men (28%) say drugs should be treated more as a health issue, compared to 20% of women, while 30% of men say they are more of a criminal issue, compared to 25% among women. Women are more likely to say they should be treated as both equally (45%) than men (34%).
See the full results for MPs here
See the full results for the British public here
If you need to know what MPs think, understand your reputation or support for an issue, or develop public affairs activity, YouGov regularly run surveys of MPs which enable you to quickly, cost-effectively and accurately understand their views. For more information click here.
Photo: Getty
