Public Support for Punishing or Treating People Who Use Drugs: The Mediating Roles of Harm and Blame

While individual and contextual characteristics of drug use predict punishment and treatment support, research has not explored whether perceived harm and blame operate as mediators. Using a survey experiment given to a Lucid Theorem sample ( n = 844) of U.S. adults, we test whether perceptions of harm and blame assigned to people who use drugs, their friends, family, community, and society mediate the relationship between drug characteristics and drug policy preferences. Utilizing linear regression models, we find that beliefs of harm and blame predict both punishment and treatment support. However, bootstrapped mediation analysis reveals that only harm to the user is a significant mediator. Our results show that concerns about individual harm, rather than individual blame, partially mediate the relationship between drug type and policy preferences. Policymakers looking to understand public support for drug-related policies should know the public prioritizes reducing harm rather than morally blaming people who use drugs.