Barriers to effective drug abuse prevention: the role of authoritarian ideology

The relationships between authoritarian ideology and attitudes and beliefs about illegal drugs, the War on Drugs, and prevention strategies were investigated among 353 university faculty, administrators, and students. A confidential mail survey assessed five variables: right-wing authoritarianism, attitude toward drug legalization, attitude toward drug decriminalization, belief regarding the controlled use of illegal drugs, and the tendency to endorse a "just say no" approach to substance abuse prevention. Multivariate analyses revealed that highly authoritarian participants were significantly more opposed to both drug legalization and drug decriminalization than less authoritarian participants. Only nonauthoritarian participants favored decriminalization, though they did not favor legalization. Compared to those scoring lower on authoritarianism, higher-scoring authoritarian participants held significantly more dichotomous beliefs about illegal drugs (i.e., that abstinence or compulsive drug abuse are the only possibilities related to involvement with illegal drugs). They were also less likely to recommend to potential drug users that they consider following guidelines for their use that may potentially function as protective factors against drug abuse, preferring instead to endorse the slogan "just say no to drugs." Comparisons between groups revealed that students scored significantly higher on authoritarianism and demonstrated significantly greater opposition to drug decriminalization than did faculty and administrators.