Public Opinion and the Morality of Drug Use: Experimental and Time-Series Analyses

Abstract

Trends in public opinion research suggest that Americans are becoming more liberal with respect to drugs. This research is limited by the absence of a reliable and valid indicator of drug sentiment, which inhibits our understanding of how and why public opinion toward drugs evolves over time. Recent studies also suggest that Americans are morally approving of drug use in certain contexts and are supportive of “harm reduction” or other progressive drug policies viewed as solutions to the drug war, but the underlying reasons as to why are not completely understood. This dissertation uses time-series analysis and two survey experiments to improve our understanding of public opinion and moral attitudes toward drugs. Study 1 utilizes the dyad ratios algorithm and 298 administrations of 66 unique survey indicators to develop a new nationally representative measure of public sentiment toward drugs from 1969 to 2021. I find that drug sentiment has become quite liberal in recent years, and this helps explain why Americans have become less punitive over time. In Study 2, I use a factorial survey experiment (N=524) to elucidate moral attitudes toward drug use. Findings suggest that moral attitudes are shaped by attributes of the person who uses drugs, aspects inherent to the situation, and respondent-level characteristics. Finally in Study 3, I use another factorial survey experiment (N=537) to clarify our understanding of public support and willingness to fund various progressive drug policies. I find that drug policy attitudes are predominately driven by respondent-level characteristics. This dissertation has theoretical implications for scholars investigating public opinion of drugs and provides suggestions to researchers or policymakers looking to reduce negative attitudes toward people who use drugs or grow public support for progressive drug policies.