Grant: Operating Grant: Evaluation BC exemption re. possession of illegal drugs

There is limited data on the impacts of decriminalization policies, which is an evident knowledge gap. However, it is important that the far-reaching impacts of decriminalization are evaluated in order to gain an understanding of the breadth of its impacts and the extent to which it achieves its goals of decreasing stigma and reducing the adverse effects of substance use and related harms. Our research team intends on conducting multiple interrelated longitudinal quantitative and qualitative studies to take place over the course of five years. Specifically, we plan to quantitatively collect and analyze routine statistics of a number of indicators such as health data, police records, and legal documents. Additionally, we will conduct a cost evaluation on a number of these indicators such as costs of policing illicit drugs, the costs per hospitalization attributable to illicit drugs, costs of court cases and imprisonments, etc. To supplement this data with rich, in-depth experiences and accounts of the individuals likely to be most affected by the decriminalization policy, we plan on conducting four qualitative sub-studies with different relevant cohorts. The goal of this five-year mixed-methods project, will be to gain an understanding of the full impacts of decriminalization of illicit substances for personal possession in BC, and to shed light on this novel drug policy experiment, which is the first of its kind in Canada.