Fifty-four percent (54%) of U.S. voters say illegal drug use is primarily a criminal justice issue rather than a matter of public health.

Thirty-seven percent (37%) view the use of illegal drugs as mostly a public health issue, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

However, voters are evenly divided over whether the war on drugs diverts police way from focusing on higher-priority crimes. Thirty-eight percent (38%) say it is a diversion, but 39% disagree. Twenty-three percent (23%) are not sure.

For most Republicans (63%) and voters not affiliated with either major political party (53%), illegal drug use is primarily a criminal matter. Democrats, however, are closely divided on the question.

The majority of conservatives and moderates see the use of illegal drugs as mostly a criminal problem, while most liberals tend to view it as a matter of public health.

Younger Americans are more likely than their elders to view use of illegal drugs as primarily a health problem.

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Forty-seven percent (47%) of all voters say those who sell drugs are more to blame for the illegal drug problem in this country than those who use them. But 39% of voters say drug users are more to blame for the criminal problem.

These findings parallel a separate survey in which just 30% of voters said U.S. drug users are more to blame for growing drug violence in Mexico than the drug producers themselves.

Forty percent (40%) of Americans now say marijuana should be legalized, while 46% disagree.

President Obama’s new drug czar Gil Kerlikowske is signaling a shift away from the decades-old war on drugs toward more emphasis on health treatment for drug users. He told the Wall Street Journal last week that he would like to end the use of the idea that America is fighting “a war on drugs” and instead put the emphasis on treating drug users rather than jailing them.

A Zogby poll in October of last year found that 76% of voters believed the war on drugs was failing.

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