With currently changing perspectives on drug use around the world, various countries have begun to decriminalize certain drug use. In the almost 30 countries who have begun the process of decriminalization to varying degrees, (Robinson, 2020), there has been improvement with the amount of drug overdoses, drug incarcerations, HIV, and addiction since recreational/personal drug use has been decriminalized. Although improvements have been tracked in these countries, there are still places and people in the world that are against this decriminalization, but why? There has been expected trends of an increase in drug users as a cause of decriminalization and debates over whether decriminalizing drug use will be an effective way to decrease the negative results of drug use (HIV, Addiction, Overdose, Incarceration).
Understanding the drug use decriminalization controversy is crucial to improving drug statistics in the United States and around the world. Many drugs that are considered illegal can be utilized in vast medical manners, but conversely, could drug decriminalization augment the amount of drug users and therefore overdoses?