Crime and Social Policy: Legalization of Marijuana

The target of the following survey is with the help of sampling methods to find out the result on the questionnaire related to the legalization of marijuana. For the most accurate result, our target audience will be located all over the USA. We will use Quota Sampling to select the candidates from database, which is non-random selection. Still, this survey has a target to collect data approximately from the respondent. The targeted audience must be carefully selected and persuaded to take part in the research (Krejci, 2010). We want to imply the survey on middle class people aged 18-50 years old, educated or in the middle of studies. The opted number is 500 correspondents all over the U.S. irrespective of the age and gender, political or religious views. The aim is to find out the attitude towards drugs legalization. The survey we want to conduct will cover some main areas. First, this will be the general perception of the subject, then the consequences of the legalization of marijuana peculiarly, the ways to deal with the consequences, proposals, etc. If to select from a broader categories, our survey will be in a form of questionnaire (Price, 2012).

1. What drugs do you think can be tolerated within society if any?
2. Please specify your gender.
3. Do you think that people that use drugs should be punished the same way as those who sell/smuggle them?
4. What kind of punishment should be given to a person who possesses/uses marijuana, if any?
5. Do you think that marijuana should be legalized or not?
6. What impact it may have on other crimes in the society?
7. Is marijuana smoking the same as tobacco smoking?
8. Is marijuana smoking the same as alcohol consumption?
9. What impact the legalizing of marijuana can it have on the society?
10. What age group do you belong to?
11. If to legalize marijuana in the USA, do you think it will provoke the increase in the number of those who use it?
12. Please, tell your highest education level.
13. Is marijuana an effective treatment to some medical diseases?
14. Can you name at least two of that kind of diseases? (if the answer for the previous questions is positive)
15. Will this prevent from excessive usage of marijuana once it is allowed?
16. Will this lead to the excessive usage of marijuana once it is allowed?
17. Will it be complicated to control the excessive usage once it is legalized?
18. Do you smoke marijuana?
19. Do you think smoking of marijuana is a crime?
20. Regardless of whether you support or not the legalization of marijuana, what is the level of your interest in this subject?
21. What impact, in your opinion, the legalization of marijuana will have on the economy?

Depending on the target audience, the survey technique is chosen. The following survey will be done by telephonic interview, because it is one of the best methods of gathering information quickly. The advantage over mail survey is that it gives an opportunity to the respondent to ask for more clarifications on some questions if needed. One of the attractions of the chosen technique is its efficiency. Mail questionnaire is also a good variant, but in this case, phone interview will be slightly better to use. The information obtained is such a way is of higher quality; it helps to have much more control over the sample base. Time-efficiency is a plus as well. Overall, this technique will help us to get more accurate and precise data that is crucial for the result. If the information from the respondent seems unclear or incorrect, the interviewer can ask for additional information.

The expectation is that the majority of the respondents will be in favor of marijuana legalization but only within medical usage. Still, there will be some strong opinions against any kind of the point mentioned above. The survey will be useful as a comparison to other similar surveys but applied within different social groups and also in a certain timeframe to see how the generations change or do not change their opinions and thoughts.

The following survey may be biased as not all respondents have had a right to participate in the survey.