No consensus on fighting the drug war: differences between state policy elites and the mass public

This article explores implications for the implementation of drug policy in the United States, based on the findings from a 1990 survey of state drug policy coordinators in all 50 states and the responses to a national mass public survey. State drug policy elites' perceptions of the relative seriousness of nine different specific drugs are assessed, together with their evaluations of federal drug policy. Significant differences in state elites' attitudes are found for certain regional effects, for the relative degree of state urbanism, and for relative state income levels. These results are compared against the findings from a 1989 CBS News/New York Times mass opinion survey measuring citizen perceptions on drug misuse and the efficacy of Bush administration policy initiatives. This comparison reveals a wide disparity between elite and mass attitudes regarding appropriate funding of the drug war, the rating of federal drug policy initiatives, and federal drug policy strategies. Such mass/elite perceptual disparities accentuate the difficulties inherent in pursuing a "drug war" strategy.