Blog #2: Project plan – Should we decriminalize all drugs?

1. Provide three steps for your research with a brief explanation of how this information will lead to addressing your question. 

What would the decriminalization of drugs would entail/ what would that look like both in our communities and globally?  

I would like to look into what the decriminalization of drugs would really entail and what it really means because I do not think that a lot of people know what it would look like and neither do I. I am interested to see what it would look like in a place like BC where there are so many overdoses due to opiates being laced with fentanyl. I would also like to research what the decriminalization of drugs looks like in other countries that have already done this, for example Portugal, to get a glimpse of what this could look like if employed in Canada. 

How the criminalization of drugs effects marginalized communities / the effect that the decriminalization of drugs could have on these communities? 

After researching how the prison industrial complex affects marginalized groups last year, I saw that petty drug crimes played a large part in the mass incarceration of these communities. I would like to further my research and find out what the impact of decriminalizing drugs could have on some of these marginalized communities. I am predicting that the decriminalization of drugs would have an almost chain like positive reaction on for these marginalized communities, I am eager to find out. 

How could decriminalizing help tackle the opioid crisis / the difference between legalization and decriminalization? 

I would like to research how/if the decriminalization of drugs could help tackle the opioid crisis because I already have a strong opinion on this topic as it is so relevant especially here in British Colombia. I would like to see how/if further research could alter my opinion on this subject. I also think it is important to note the difference between legalization and decriminalization and how they are different, and I would like to slightly delve into how legalization could also help tackle the opioid crisis. 

2. Provide 5 valid sources that might be useful to address the question.

• https://www.lawnow.org/decriminalization-of-drugs-in-canada/ 
• https://substanceabusepolicy.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13011-021-00394-7#:~:text=Abstract,rather%20than%20public%2Dorder%20priorities. 
• https://www.wired.co.uk/article/canada-moves-to-decriminalize-possession-of-hard-drugs 
• https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/safe-supply-around-the-world-1.6479317 
• https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html 

3. Explain how this question will have implications to other individuals and/or my community.

This question could help people understand further understand the opioid crisis currently taking place in British Colombia and how the decriminalization of drugs could help/exacerbate this ongoing issue.