Canadians’ knowledge and attitudes around drug decriminalization: Results from a 2025 public opinion research survey

Date published: April 24, 2026

Background on the exemption 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. The exemption came into effect on January 31, 2023. The exemption expired on January 31, 2026. British Columbia (BC) has indicated that they are not seeking a renewal. 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 was prohibited in public spaces, including transit, while exemptions remained in place for private residences, designated healthcare clinics, places where people were lawfully sheltering, and overdose prevention and drug checking sites. Since this public opinion research (POR) was conducted in July 2025, the results relate to the scope of the exemption after this amendment. Previous years of POR research (2023 and 2024) relate to the original scope of the amendment.

Approach to monitoring attitudes around drug decriminalization

Health Canada collected data at a national level on Canadians' attitudes towards, and knowledge of, drug decriminalization. To do this, Health Canada 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 was information gathered from POR. POR surveys were conducted annually by Health Canada throughout the exemption period.

About the 2025 Public Opinion Research 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 July 14 and July 27, 2025. Respondents were randomly sampled with proportional representation from across Canada. Unless otherwise noted, results shown in this report are expressed as percentages. They may not add up to 100% due to rounding or a “not sure” response to a given question.

Questions focused on 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 exemption for personal possession.

The 2025 POR survey was the third POR survey conducted on BC's exemption. The first POR survey was conducted in 2023 and the second POR survey in 2024. In addition to sharing findings from the 2025 POR survey, this report will highlight how responses have changed since 2023 and 2024.

In 2025, the 4 knowledge questions were replaced with updated questions to reflect the changes made to the exemption in 2024. A new question was also added, asking whether respondents were aware of BC's decriminalization policy. Therefore, the knowledge questions in 2025 are not comparable to questions from previous POR surveys.

Key highlights from the 2025 POR survey results

Attitudes

To address substance use, Canadians preferred a focus on access to health and social services (39%) rather than police enforcement (13%). 40% felt that both approaches were equally appropriate, and 6% felt that neither approach was appropriate (Figure 1).

A preference for focusing on health and social services dropped by 5 percent compared to the 2024 POR and by 10 percent compared to the 2023 POR (Figure 1). Support for police enforcement increased by 7 percent compared to 2024 and by 6 percent compared to 2023 (Figure 1).

Those more likely to prefer a focus on access to health and social services (Figure 2a) were:

women (45%)
residents of BC (43%) and the Atlantic provinces (44%)
people with university education (44%)
non-immigrant respondents (42%)
people with a trade or college education (39%)
people with no kids under the age of 18 (40%)
residents of urban areas (40%)

Those more likely to prefer a focus on police enforcement (Figure 2b) were:

men (17%)
people with a high school education or less (17%)
people from ages 18 to 34 (16%)

Those with kids under the age of 18 (45%) and residents of rural areas (48%) were more likely to think that both approaches (access to health and social services and police enforcement) were equally appropriate (Figure 2c).

Most Canadians would like their friends or family members who use drugs to feel comfortable talking to them about it (84%) and have empathy for people struggling with drug use (78%; Figure 3). However, agreement with both of these statements has decreased slightly compared to 2023, by 4 and 3 percent respectively (Figure 4).

Half of Canadians believed that decriminalization would make it easier to access health and social services. However, agreement with this statement has dropped by 7 percent compared to 2024 and by 12 percent compared to 2023 (Figure 4). In 2025, 43% believed decriminalization would reduce stigma towards people who use drugs. Agreement with this statement decreased by 7 percent compared to 2024 and by 13 percent compared to 2023 (Figure 4). The belief that drug decriminalization would make communities less safe has not changed since 2024 (48%), but has increased by 5 percent since 2023 (Figure 4).

**Figure 1: Attitudes towards approaches to address substance use among people who use drugs in 2023, 2024, and 2025**

Figure 1: Attitudes towards approaches to address substance use among people who use drugs in 2023, 2024, and 2025
	Percentage in 2023	Percentage in 2024	Percentage in 2025
Focus on access to health and social services such as drug treatment centres and recovery programs	49%	44%	39%
Both approaches are equally appropriate	35%	42%	40%
Focus on police enforcement such as criminal charges and jail time	7%	6%	13%
Neither approach is appropriate	6%	6%	6%

**Figure 2a: Attitudes towards approaches to address substance use among people who use drugs for specific populations: Focus on access to health and social services**

Figure 2a: Attitudes towards approaches to address substance use among people who use drugs for specific populations: Focus on access to health and social services
Group	Percentage
Canada	39%
BC	43%
AB	32%
SK	29%
MB	42%
ON	38%
QC	40%
ATL	44%
Men	33%
Women	45%
Ages 18 to 34	40%
Ages 35 to 54	38%
Ages 55 and over	39%
High school education or less	30%
Trade or college education	39%
University education	44%
Household income under $60,000	36%
Household income between $60,000 and $150,000	39%
Household income of $150,000 or more	43%
Parents with kids under the age of 18	34%
No kids under the age of 18	40%
Immigrant	30%
Born in Canada	42%
Rural	30%
Urban	40%

**Figure 2b: Attitudes towards approaches to address substance use among people who use drugs for specific populations: Focus on police enforcement**

Figure 2b: Attitudes towards approaches to address substance use among people who use drugs for specific populations: Focus on police enforcement
Group	Percentage
Canada	13%
BC	12%
AB	15%
SK	13%
MB	14%
ON	12%
QC	13%
ATL	10%
Men	17%
Women	8%
Ages 18 to 34	16%
Ages 35 to 54	12%
Ages 55 and over	11%
High school education or less	17%
Trade or college education	13%
University education	10%
Household income under $60,000	15%
Household income between $60,000 and $150,000	12%
Household income of $150,000 or more	12%
Parents with kids under the age of 18	14%
No kids under the age of 18	12%
Immigrant	17%
Born in Canada	11%
Rural	13%
Urban	13%

**Figure 2c: Attitudes towards approaches to address substance use among people who use drugs for specific populations: Both approaches are equally appropriate**

Figure 2c: Attitudes towards approaches to address substance use among people who use drugs for specific populations: Both approaches are equally appropriate
Group	Percentage
Canada	40%
BC	37%
AB	42%
SK	45%
MB	40%
ON	42%
QC	38%
ATL	36%
Men	41%
Women	39%
Ages 18 to 34	37%
Ages 35 to 54	42%
Ages 55 and over	40%
High school education or less	41%
Trade or college education	40%
University education	40%
Household income under $60,000	39%
Household income between $60,000 to $150,000	42%
Household income of $150,000 or more	40%
Parents with kids under the age of 18	45%
No kids under the age of 18	38%
Immigrant	42%
Born in Canada	39%
Rural	48%
Urban	39%

**Figure 3: Attitudes towards people who use drugs and decriminalization**

Figure 3: Attitudes 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	84%	4%	7%
I have empathy for people struggling with drug use	78%	6%	14%
I believe decriminalization would make it easier to access health and social services such as drug treatment centers and recovery programs	50%	10%	35%
I believe decriminalization would increase harms associated with drug use such as overdoses	53%	10%	33%
I believe decriminalization would reduce the stigma towards people who use drugs	43%	11%	42%
I believe decriminalizing drugs would make my community less safe	48%	11%	37%

**Figure 4: Change in attitudes towards people who use drugs and decriminalization from 2023 to 2025**

Figure 4: Change in attitudes towards people who use drugs and decriminalization from 2023 to 2025
Prompt	Percent who somewhat/strongly agree in 2023	Percent who somewhat/strongly agree in 2024	Percent who somewhat/strongly agree in 2025
I have empathy for people struggling with drug use	81%	81%	78%
I believe decriminalization would make it easier to access health and social services such as drug treatment centers and recovery programs	62%	57%	50%
I believe decriminalization would increase harms associated with drug use such as overdoses	51%	53%	53%
I believe decriminalization would reduce the stigma towards people who use drugs	56%	50%	43%
I believe decriminalizing drugs would make my community less safe	43%	48%	48%

Knowledge

Half of Canadians were aware of BC's decriminalization policy.

Residents of BC (74%), Alberta (57%), and Saskatchewan (60%) had the highest awareness of BC's policy relative to other provinces. Those more likely to be aware of BC's decriminalization policy (Figure 5) were:

people with household income over $150,000 (60%)
people with household income between $60,000 and $100,000 (56%)
men (56%)
non-immigrants (54%)
people with university education (52%)
people with college education (51%)

**Figure 5: Awareness of BC’s decriminalization policy for specific populations**

Figure 5: Awareness of BC's decriminalization policy for specific populations
Group	Percentage
Canada	50%
BC	74%
AB	57%
SK	60%
MB	41%
ON	49%
QC	33%
ATL	43%
Men	56%
Women	43%
Ages 18 to 34	46%
Ages 35 to 54	51%
Ages 55 and over	50%
High school education or less	42%
Trade or college education	51%
University education	52%
Household income under $60,000	37%
Household income between $60,000 and $150,000	56%
Household income of $150,000 or more	60%
Parents with kids under the age of 18	48%
No kids under the age of 18	50%
Immigrant	37%
Born in Canada	54%
Rural	49%
Urban	50%

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

details about which activities involving drugs are covered by the exemption
spaces where possession is permitted or prohibited under the amended exemption

Between 43% to 66% of Canadians, depending on the question, were able to correctly identify details of BC's exemption (Table 1). However, 23% to 40% of respondents answered incorrectly and 12% to 18% were unsure of the answer. Many Canadians incorrectly believed people cannot be charged with possession if they are holding under 2.5 grams of drugs on a sidewalk or at a park (40%).

Table 1: Knowledge of the details of BC's exemption, updated in May 2024
Question	Percent who answered “True”	Percent who answered “False”	Percent who answered “Not sure”	Correct answer
People can be charged with possession if they are holding under 2.5 grams of drugs at a supervised consumption site or a drug checking site	28%	55%	17%	False
People can be charged with possession if they are holding under 2.5 grams of drugs on a sidewalk or at a park	43%	40%	17%	True
People can be arrested for drug trafficking/dealing, no matter how much drug they are selling or trading	66%	23%	12%	True
People can be charged with breach of substance-related release conditions no matter how much they are holding	53%	29%	18%	True
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, July 14 to 27, 2025 Base: All respondents (Canada: n = 2,000) Note: Questions reflect participants' knowledge after the amendment of the exemption in May 2024

Conclusion

The results from this survey reflect the knowledge and attitudes of Canadian adults around drug decriminalization in BC in 2025 and serve as an update to the 2023 and 2024 results. They 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 compliments monitoring and evaluation work being led by the BC Ministry of Health and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

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2026-04-24