From Social Proximity to Policy Preferences: Contact with Drug Market Participants and Citizens’ Attitudes Toward Drug Policy

Abstract The negative externalities of the global “war on drugs”—including violence, militarization, mass incarceration, and human rights violations—have sparked an intense debate over drug prohibition and legalization. Public opinion, particularly in regions most affected by drug-related violence, plays a pivotal role in shaping policy decisions, as it can either reinforce the status quo or push policymakers toward reform. In this context, it remains unclear whether citizens’ proximity to drug market participants gives them a clearer understanding of the threats of drug trafficking and abuse, swaying them toward prohibitionist positions, or—as we argue—promotes perspective-taking and fosters greater support for legalization. Using previously underanalyzed data from 18 countries and three waves of the Latinobarómetro, we examine the effect of contact on citizens’ drug policy preferences in Latin America, one of the regions most affected by drug violence. To derive generalized inferences, we use pooled models with fixed effects. To address measurement and simultaneity concerns, we employ year-specific and lagged hierarchical linear models. Across all specifications, contact is consistently associated with greater support for drug legalization. Our findings challenge the notion that personal contact with drug market participants fosters prohibitive attitudes and alleviate fears that legalizing drugs—and thus increasing consumer and non-consumer contact—could trigger significant public backlash. This study contributes to intergroup contact theory by extending its application to the understudied domain of drug policy and offering new insights into how social and environmental factors shape public opinion.