Report: Canadians’ knowledge and attitudes around drug decriminalization: Results from a 2024 public opinion research survey

On this page

• Background on the exemption in British Columbia related to personal possession of certain illegal drugs
• Approach to monitoring attitudes around drug decriminalization
• About the 2024 Public Opinion Research (POR) survey
• Key highlights from the 2024 POR survey results
• Conclusion

Background on the exemptions in British Columbia related to personal possession of certain illegal drugs

At the request of the Government of British Columbia, Health Canada issued an exemption related to personal possession of certain illegal drugs for adults 18 years of age and older in the province came into effect. The exemption came into effect on January 31, 2023. British Columbia (BC) refers to this exemption as a form of decriminalization.

Under the original exemption, adults 18 years of age and older could not be subject to criminal charges or drug seizure if they were found in personal possession of up to 2.5 grams total of any combination of:

• opioids
• cocaine
• methamphetamine
• MDMA

Instead, they were offered information about health and social supports. This includes support with referrals to local treatment and recovery services, if requested.

As of May 7, 2024, the details of the exemption related to personal possession in BC were amended. Possession is now prohibited in public spaces, including transit, while exemptions remain in place for private residences, designated healthcare clinics, places where people are lawfully sheltering, and overdose prevention and drug checking sites. Since this 2024 public opinion research (POR) was conducted in February 2024, the results relate to the scope of the exemption prior to this amendment.

Approach to monitoring attitudes around drug decriminalization

Health Canada is collecting data at a national level on Canadians' attitudes towards, and knowledge of, drug decriminalization. To do this, Health Canada has identified a set of indicators to monitor changes related to:

• stigma
• attitudes towards drug use
• perceptions of public safety

A key source of data for this work will be information gathered from POR. POR surveys will be conducted annually by Health Canada throughout the exemption period.

About the 2024 Public Opinion Research (POR) survey

The POR survey was conducted by the Privy Council Office (PCO). It used a random sample of 2,000 Canadian adults aged 18 and older. The survey was conducted between February 12 and February 25, 2024. Respondents were randomly sampled with proportional representation from across Canada. Unless otherwise noted, results shown in this report are expressed as percentages and may not add up to 100% due to rounding or a "not sure" response to a given question.

Questions focused on both attitudes and knowledge about:

• preferences for approaches to addressing substance use, including a focus on health and social services versus police enforcement
• general attitudes around empathy for people struggling with substance use
• general attitudes around level of comfort in talking to friends and family members about their substance use
• perceived benefits and disadvantages of decriminalization
  • This included a focus on improved access to relevant health and social services, reduced stigma, increased harms, and reduced community safety

The POR survey also included 4 true-or-false questions to test respondents' knowledge of the details of BC's original exemption for personal possession.

The 2024 POR survey was the second POR survey conducted on BC's original exemption. The first POR survey was conducted in 2023 (2023 POR survey results). In addition to sharing findings from the 2024 POR survey, this report will highlight how responses have changed since 2023.

Key highlights from the 2024 POR survey results

Attitudes

To address substance use, Canadians preferred a focus on access to health and social services (44%) rather than police enforcement (6%; Figure 1). About two in five Canadians felt that both approaches were equally appropriate (42%), and 6% felt that neither approach was appropriate.

Compared to the 2023 POR survey, a preference for focusing on health and social services dropped by 5 percentage points, while support for both health and social services and police enforcement approaches increased by 7 percentage points (Figure 2).

Residents of BC and the Atlantic provinces, women, those with a university degree and Canadian-born respondents were more likely to prefer a focus on access to health and social services to address substance use among people who use drugs (Figure 3a).

Although few Canadians preferred a police enforcement approach to address substance use, men, parents with kids under 18, and immigrant respondents were more likely to prefer this approach (Figure 3b). Residents of Quebec and Alberta, and immigrant respondents, were more likely to think that both approaches (access to health and social services and police enforcement) were equally appropriate (Figure 3c).

Most Canadians would like their friends or family members who use drugs to feel comfortable talking to them about it (87%) and had empathy for people struggling with drug use (81%; Figure 4).

Most Canadians believed that decriminalization would make it easier to access health and social services (57%), and half believed decriminalization would reduce stigma towards people who use drugs (50%). However, agreement with these statements has slightly dropped since 2023 (by 5 and 6 percentage points, respectively; Figure 5). The belief that drug decriminalization would make communities less safe increased slightly from 2023, by 5 percentage points.

Figure 1: Text description

Attitudes towards approaches to address substance use among people who use drugs

Response	Percentage (%)
Focus on access to health and social services such as drug treatment centres and recovery programs	44
Both approaches are equally appropriate	42
Focus on police enforcement such as criminal charges and jail time	6
Neither approach is appropriate	6

Question: Which of the following approaches do you feel is more appropriate to address substance use among people who use drugs?
Source: PCO Survey on Current Issues, February 12 to 25, 2024
Base: All respondents (Canada: n = 2,000)
Note: This question reflects participants' attitudes prior to the amendment of the exemption in May 2024.

Figure 2: Text description

Change in attitudes towards approaches for addressing substance use among people who use drugs from 2023 to 2024

Response	Percentage in 2023 (%)	Percentage in 2024 (%)	Difference in percentage (2024-2023)
Focus on access to health and social services such as drug treatment centres and recovery programs	49	44	-5
Both approaches are equally appropriate	35	42	+7
Focus on police enforcement such as criminal charges and jail time	7	6	-1
Neither approach is appropriate	6	6	0

Question: Which of the following approaches do you feel is more appropriate to address substance use among people who use drugs?
Source: PCO Survey on Current Issues, February 27 to March 12, 2023; February 12 to 25, 2024
Base: All respondents (Canada: n = 2,000 in 2023; n = 2,000 in 2024)
Note: This question reflects participants' attitudes prior to the amendment of the exemption in May 2024.

Figure 3a: Text description

Focus on access to health and social services

Group	Percentage (%)
Canada	44
BC	51
AB	40
SK	37
MB	42
ON	44
QC	41
ATL	51
Men	40
Women	48
Ages 18 to 34	48
Ages 35 to 54	43
Ages 55 and over	44
High school or less	40
Trade/college	43
University	48
Under $40K	44
$40K to $100k	47
$100k or more	44
Parents with kids < 18	40
No kids < 18	46
Immigrant	35
Born in Canada	48

Figure 3b: Text description

Focus on police enforcement

Group	Percentage (%)
Canada	6
BC	4
AB	5
SK	8
MB	10
ON	5
QC	7
ATL	8
Men	8
Women	3
Ages 18 to 34	5
Ages 35 to 54	7
Ages 55 and over	5
High school or less	7
Trade/college	6
University	5
Under $40K	6
$40K to $100k	5
$100k or more	6
Parents with kids < 18	8
No kids < 18	5
Immigrant	8
Born in Canada	5

Figure 3c: Text description

Both approaches are equally appropriate

Group	Percentage (%)
Canada	42
BC	37
AB	45
SK	44
MB	42
ON	42
QC	44
ATL	34
Men	43
Women	40
Ages 18 to 34	38
Ages 35 to 54	42
Ages 55 and over	43
High school or less	43
Trade/college	41
University	41
Under $40K	40
$40K to $100k	40
$100k or more	45
Parents with kids < 18	45
No kids < 18	40
Immigrant	47
Born in Canada	40

Question: Which of the following approaches do you feel is more appropriate to address substance use among people who use drugs?
Source: PCO Survey on Current Issues, February 12 to 25, 2024
Base: All respondents (Canada: n = 2,000)
Note: This question reflects participants' attitudes prior to the amendment of the exemption in May 2024.

Figure 4: Text description

Attitudes to towards people who use drugs and decriminalization

Prompt	Strongly/somewhat agree (%)	Neither agree nor disagree (%)	Strongly/somewhat disagree (%)
I would like my friends or family members who use drugs to feel comfortable talking to me about it	87	4	7
I have empathy for people struggling with drug use	81	5	13
I believe decriminalization would make it easier to access health and social services such as drug treatment centers and recovery programs	57	9	31
I believe decriminalizing drugs would increase harms associated with drug use such as overdoses	53	9	35
I believe decriminalization would reduce the stigma towards people who use drugs	50	8	38
I believe decriminalizing drugs would make my community less safe	48	9	41

Question: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
Source: PCO Survey on Current Issues, February 12 to February 25, 2024
Base: All respondents (n = 2,000)
Note: This question reflects participants' attitudes prior to the amendment of the exemption in May 2024.

Figure 5: Text description

Change in attitudes towards people who use drugs and decriminalization from 2023 to 2024

Prompt	Strongly/somewhat agree in 2023 (%)	Strongly/somewhat agree in 2024 (%)	Difference in percentage (2024-2023)
I would like my friends or family members who use drugs to feel comfortable talking to me about it	88	87	-1
I have empathy for people struggling with drug use	81	81	0
I believe decriminalization would make it easier to access health and social services such as drug treatment centers and recovery programs	62	57	-5
I believe decriminalizing drugs would increase harms associated with drug use such as overdoses	51	53	+2
I believe decriminalization would reduce the stigma towards people who use drugs	56	50	-6
I believe decriminalizing drugs would make my community less safe	43	48	+5

Question: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
Source: PCO Survey on Current Issues, February 27 to March 12, 2023; February 12 to 25, 2024
Base: All respondents (n = 2,000 in 2023); (n = 2,000 in 2024)
Note: This question reflects participants' attitudes prior to the amendment of the exemption in May 2024.

Knowledge

Questions testing Canadians' knowledge of the exemption in BC focused on:

• differences between the exemption and legalization
• the role of police in enforcing the exemption
• details about which activities involving drugs are covered by the exemption in BC

57% to 65% of Canadians, depending on the question, were able to correctly identify details of BC's exemption (Figure 6). However, 22% to 27% of respondents answered incorrectly and 13% to 16% were unsure of the answer.

Since 2023, the proportion of Canadians who correctly identified as false the statement that it is now legal to possess any type of drugs in BC rose by 5 percentage points (Figure 7). Knowledge of other details of the exemption were unchanged since last year.

Increased knowledge of the details of BC's original exemption were shown by (Figure 8):

• BC respondents
• those aged 18 to 34 years
• those with higher income levels
• Canadian-born respondents

Figure 6: Knowledge of the details of BC's original exemption

	True (%)	False (%)	Not sure (%)
It is now legal to possess any type of drugs, people carrying illegal drugs are no longer being stopped by the police	22	65	14
Police officers can provide resources available to help people who use drugs	64	22	13
People carrying small amounts of certain illegal drugs for personal use are no longer arrested or charged for personal possession	60	25	15
Police officers no longer monitor street level drug use	27	57	16

Question: Based on your understanding of the decriminalization of personal possession of drugs being implemented in British Columbia, are the following statements true or false? (Correct answers are highlighted in darker cells)
Source: PCO Survey on Current Issues, February 12 to February 25, 2024
Base: All respondents (n = 2,000)
Note: This question reflects participants' knowledge prior to the amendment of the exemption in May 2024. The correct responses to knowledge questions did not change following the exemption amendment.

Figure 7: Text description

Change in knowledge of BC's original exemption from 2023 to 2024

Prompt	Percent answering correctly in 2023 (%)	Percent answering correctly in 2024 (%)	Difference in percentage (2024-2023)
It is now legal to possess any type of drugs, people carrying illegal drugs are no longer being stopped by the police	60	65	+5
Police officers can provide resources available to help people who use drugs	66	64	-2
People carrying small amounts of certain illegal drugs for personal use are no longer arrested or charged for personal possession	62	60	-2
Police officers no longer monitor street level drug use	57	57	0

Question: Based on your understanding of the decriminalization of personal possession of drugs being implemented in British Columbia, are the following statements true or false?
Source: PCO Survey on Current Issues, April 17-30, 2023; February 12 to 25, 2024
Base: All respondents (n = 2,000 in 2023); (n = 2,000 in 2024)
Note: This question reflects participants' knowledge prior to the amendment of the exemption in May 2024. The correct responses to knowledge questions did not change following the exemption amendment.

Figure 8: Text description

Knowledge of the details of BC's original exemption for specific populations

Group	Index score
Canada	62
BC	65
AB	63
SK	56
MB	63
ON	60
QC	62
ATL	60
Men	61
Women	62
Ages 18 to 34	65
Ages 35 to 54	61
Ages 55 and over	61
High school or less	61
Trade/college	60
University	63
Under $40K	60
$40K to $100k	64
$100k or more	64
Parents with kids < 18	63
No kids < 18	61
Immigrant	54
Born in Canada	64

BC drug decriminalization understanding index: Respondents get 25 points for each correct answer. A respondent who answers all four questions correctly gets a score of 100.
Source: PCO Survey on Current Issues, February 12 to February 25, 2024
Base: All respondents (n = 2,000)
Note: This question reflects participants' knowledge prior to the amendment of the exemption in May 2024. The correct responses to knowledge questions did not change following the exemption amendment.

Conclusion

The results from this survey reflect the knowledge and attitudes of Canadian adults around drug decriminalization and the original exemption in BC in 2024. These results serve as an update to the 2023 results and are important for monitoring key outcomes of the exemption, particularly public awareness and understanding of the details of the exemption and substance use. Health Canada's work will continue to compliment monitoring and evaluation work being led by the BC Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.