Gallup Vault: The Opening Salvo in the War on Drugs

In July 1951, Dr. George Gallup reported on Americans' familiarity with the news at that time about drug smuggling and sales to teenagers, saying:

"Few happenings have so aroused the American public as has the teenage narcotics scandal. Many more people have heard or read about these revelations than about the famed MacArthur hearings which dominated the headlines for eight weeks."

	Yes%	No%
U.S. adults	88	12
Gallup, June 16-21, 1951

The poll, showing that 88% of Americans had heard of the narcotics problem, was conducted a month after U.S. officials at the United Nations warned that smuggling heroin into the U.S. was the country's biggest drug problem. The poll also started the day before federal officials addressed the issue at an anti-drug conference in New York City, sponsored by the American Legion. According to a July 18, 1951, New York Times report on the conference, "The problem is most acute in New York, the Legion meeting was told by Assistant District Attorney Irving Slonim, with street sales of narcotics amounting to at least $100,000,000 annually. Mounting prices of narcotics 'shots,' he said, had driven many young addicts to crime to obtain funds for supplies, bringing the problem into the open."

In the same poll, Gallup asked Americans if they thought drugs were being sold in their community and what the penalty should be for anyone convicted of "selling dope to teenagers." The answers suggested the problem, or at least awareness of it, was far greater in urban than in suburban or rural areas, and that the vast majority of Americans favored long imprisonment, including 21% favoring a life sentence. Fourteen percent favored the death penalty.

	Yes, sold%	No, not sold%	Unsure%
U.S. adults	32	49	19
Community size
500,000+	70	14	16
100,000 to 499,999	38	34	28
10,000 to 99,999	24	52	24
Less than 10,000	10	70	20
Gallup, June 16-21, 1951

 

	U.S. adults%
Death/Electric chair	14
Life imprisonment	21
Imprisonment 6+ years	16
Serious jail term/Severe sentence/Hard labor in penitentiary	28
Imprisonment to limit law allows	10
Imprisonment 5 years or less	3
Heavily fined	2
Medical treatment	1
Miscellaneous	1
No opinion	5
Gallup, June 16-21, 1951

These data can be found in Gallup Analytics.

Read more from the Gallup Vault.