Decriminalization: How police drug seizure, even without arrest, can create harms

published on August 30, 2023 by Kanna Hayashi in The Conversation

International Overdose Awareness Day, an annual campaign to end overdose and drug poisonings while also remembering those who have died, is Aug. 31. Events are being held in communities across Canada, a sign of a worsening crisis that has taken more than 36,000 lives since 2016.

The day also represents an opportunity to discuss much-needed policy changes. The decriminalization of people who use drugs has long been one of the proposed solutions, an approach that is currently being piloted in British Columbia.

On Jan. 31, 2023, B.C. began a first-in-Canada pilot “decriminalization” policy, in which criminal sanctions for the possession of small amounts of certain illegal drugs for personal use were removed for adults aged 18 or above.

Seven months into this experiment, the impact of this policy remains unclear. Because a dashboard of policy impact indicator data has not yet been published at the time of writing, it is difficult to weigh the initial effects of the policy….