MORE than half of Australians support reduced legal penalties for use of drugs like cannabis and ecstasy, an analysis of a government survey shows.

The findings contrast with the Nielsen poll released yesterday which showed that two-thirds of people opposed decriminalisation.

Police remove cannabis plants from a house following a raid. Credit:Gary Sissons

But that is explained by the different way the poll questions were structured says Alison Ritter, who heads a drug policy modelling program at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of New South Wales.

Professor Ritter says the different results reflect the different responses likely when people are asked about specific approaches rather than about the broader decriminalisation question put in the Herald/Nielsen poll, which asked: ''Do you support or oppose decriminalising drug use?''