Evidence has shown drug use does not increase with harm reduction, supervised consumption sites and decriminalization.

Three years into the legalization of marijuana in Canada, by 2021, there was no marked increase in cannabis usage among youth. This finding is consistent with analyses of youth in other countries.

In Vancouver, an overdose prevention site had an immediate increased service engagement of 6.4%, and concurrent 4.5% increase in addiction treatment, following expansion of overdose prevention sites.

Insite, North America’s first supervised injection site in Vancouver, found 23% of people stopped injecting and another 57% entered addiction treatment.

Drug use was decriminalized in Portugal in 2001. This country has drug use levels below the European average. Drug use has declined for people between 15-24. Trends of year over year and from one month to the next had drug use decrease in the general population. The rates of dependent drug use and injected drug use decreased.

Reference
I. Evidence Around Harm Reduction and Public Health-Based Drug Policies, Canadian Drug Policy Coalition