ABSTRACT
The majority of officers believe that illicit drug use represents only a moderate law-enforcement problem in their localities. The majority of officers see the personality traits of the drug users as similar to those found among other persons who come to the attention of the police. Most frequently said to be much the same as drug users are social nonconformists, burglars, and shoplifters, till tappers, prostitutes, and alcoholics. Drug users were often seen as similar to alcoholics in personality. Another way to understand the role of the drug user in the hierarchy of comparative criminality presumed to exist within the minds of police officers is to learn what punishments the officers would mete out to typical offenders from a number of groups. Reviewing the substance of the police views of alcohol and marijuana difference, based on existing law and values, loom most large. Some consider alcohol pharmacologically worse; others marijuana.
