Drug tests wanted for key workers

Researchers examined the UK's behaviour and attitudes towards drugs

Most Britons want teachers, police officers and nurses to undergo regular drug tests, a new survey has suggested.

Researchers found the number of people who believed key workers should face testing had grown in recent years.

More than 80% said police officers should undergo routine testing to see if they were using illegal substances, compared with 61% six years ago.

The ICM survey, published in the Observer newspaper, questioned about 1,000 people.

A minority (46%) thought teachers should face testing in 2002, compared to the majority (68%) in 2008, and that trend held for pilots, drivers, doctors and nurses.

Toughening attitude

Researchers examined the UK's behaviour and attitudes towards drugs, and a toughening stance was evident in other responses.

The proportion of people who believed drug laws were too liberal rose from a quarter in 2002 to almost a third (32%), according to the ICM research.

The number of people who said the laws were not liberal enough fell from 30% to 18%, while support for decriminalising certain drugs dropped from 38% to 27%.

A large proportion (70%) said all dealers should be treated alike and the law should not discriminate between those who sell drugs and those who supply them without turning a profit, perhaps to friends.

Almost as many (63%) wanted addicts caught in possession of drugs to be jailed.

Nonetheless cannabis, which 17% saw as the least harmful illegal drug obtainable, was seen as less damaging than alcohol (47%) or tobacco (23%), both legal substances.

Researchers also uncovered what could be misplaced optimism among those polled.

While 27% of those questioned had taken an illegal drug, only 13% of those with children between 12 and 35 years old thought their offspring had "certainly" done so.