Policy Brief: CSAM in Support of the Decriminalization of Drug Use and Possession for Personal Use

INTRODUCTION Current Canadian drug policy reflects an antiquated understanding of substance use as originating from moral failure. Although Substance Use Disorder is now better understood as a multifactorial chronic remitting and relapsing disease defined in the DSM-5, existing policies continue to criminalize drug use, further exacerbating existing health inequities. This policy brief will summarize the resulting harms from the criminalization of drug use and the available evidence of an increasingly supported alternative referred to as decriminalization. Based on this growing body of evidence, the Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine (CSAM) endorses the decriminalization of drug use and possession for personal use.