Student Poll

I conducted a poll that involved fifteen students all between the ages of 18- 22. This poll was based on question about drugs and drug use. I asked a total of seven questions one of which involved a sentence answer. The first question was, What do you think the average age is when a person first tries any type of drug? There were three possible answers, A) 10-12 B) 12-15 C) 15- +. Twelve of the participants answered with B, three people said A, and no one answered with C. So looking at these answers you can see that these students who answered the survey believe that people are first introduced to drugs at a very young age. This can be both good and bad depending on the person, if you are a younger child experimenting; then they may just try a certain type of illegal drug and that will be the end of it. However, if you are a preteen that tries a certain type of drug not just to try it but to get a reaction from it you may have a greater chance of turning this into a habit.
The second question I asked was, Do you think your family upbringing has something to do with children using drugs? There were only two possible answers for this, either yes or no, 11 students answered with yes and the other four answered with no. I could see this going both ways, children going up in a home with not many rules about right from wrong, or homes that don’t discourage against drug use may give these children the wrong impression; thinking that drugs are okay and that they won’t affect their life. On the other hand a child can grow up in a fun loving, caring, relaxed setting and not want have any influence to try drugs, or they could completely become and addict. A lot depends on a persons’ personality and priorities.
The third question I asked, Was do you consider alcohol a drug? This question was just about split right down the middle which seemed surprising to me. Eight students answered with no and seven answered with yes. I was surprised by this answer because so many people said yes, I was expecting it to be all no’s across the board seeing as how it is such a common part of people’s lives. People always go out for social drinking, and use alcohol as “liquid courage.” Seeing as how this is so common among all classes of people, I wouldn’t expect for so many to think it should be illegal or think of it as a drug.
The forth question I asked is, What do you think the most common drug is? A) Meth B) Cocaine and C) Heroin. This answer was pretty well divided, I think because these aren’t the most common drugs; such as marijuana or alcohol. Meth received five votes, cocaine got seven votes and heroin received three votes.
The fifth question was, Which sex is most likely to use? The males received all the votes with this question, this wasn’t too shocking but I still expected the females to get a few votes. I think the reason behind the males accumulating so many more votes is because men are known to be more of risk takers and willing to try more things with dangerous outcome.
The last question asked was, Should any drugs be legalized? If so what ones? Eleven of the students surveyed said yes. Most of these students thought that only marijuana should be legalized, but a few others thought all natural drugs should be legal including mushrooms. The other four said no drugs should be legal.
Looking into this poll you see a lot of obvious answers that I think most people in Minnesota would answer similarly too. This survey was very informative to me to see what students believe and how they view certain drugs.