Trends in Public Opinion About US Illicit Drug Policy: Results From the 2000 to 2025 Gallup Survey.

Abstract

Illicit drugs have had a profound societal impact in the last 25 years, including 1.2 million Americans dying from overdose. This study seeks to understand whether Americans perceive policy progress against illicit drugs and how they perceive the drug problem nationally and locally. I analyzed data collected on 13 occasions between 2000 and 2025 as part of the Gallup Poll Social Survey (GPSS), an ongoing, nationally representative, cross-sectional telephone survey of American adults (N = 13,311). GPSS asks respondents to rate their perceptions of progress against illicit drugs and how severe they perceive the drug problem nationally and in their own communities. Less than half of all Americans in most years perceived that progress has been made against illicit drugs. Perceived progress was at its lowest point in 2023 (23.4% of all respondents), but sharply increased in 2025 (44.2%). Americans have been more likely to perceive progress when the president is from their party, and partisan effects have grown since the mid-2010s. For example, Republican perceptions of progress swung upward by 54.0 points between 2023 and 2025. Most Americans have perceived that drugs are a serious problem nationally, but only a minority said that they are a serious problem in their own community. Perception of a serious problem have held steady among Republicans, but Democrats' sense of concern about the national problem has decreased. Partisanship has become a major factor in how Americans perceive progress in drug policy. With widening political polarization, it may prove difficult to achieve a broad consensus in society, which itself could limit public support for a cohesive national drug control strategy.