SynthesisBMJ open2020
Impact evaluations of drug decriminalisation and legal regulation on drug use, health and social harms: a systematic review.
Synthesis in BMJ open, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Is legalization of recreational cannabis associated with levels of use and cannabis use disorder among youth in the United States? A rapid systematic review.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- ΔBiological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2026Trial
- Effects of legal access versus illegal market cannabis on use and mental health: A randomized controlled trial.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2025Trial
- Prevalence and Reasons for Microdosing Cannabis, Psilocybin, LSD, and MDMA Among U.S. Adults.American journal of preventive medicine · 2026Article
- Self-Injury Mortality: Global Ascertainment and Prevention.Medical principles and practice : international journal of the Kuwait University, Health Science Centre · 2026Review
- Attitudes to Drug Policy in Australia, 2001-2022/23: What Does This Mean for Drug Policy Reform in Australia?Drug and alcohol review · 2026Article
- Expected population prevalence following decriminalization of recreational use of cannabis in Sweden.Journal of cannabis research · 2026Article
- Social justice with harm reduction approaches for mothers who use opioids: an international comparative ethnographic study with community engaged methods.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Policing and access to harm reduction services among young people who use drugs and young Indigenous people who use drugs before and after the pilot implementation of decriminalization of personal possession.The International journal on drug policy · 2025Article
- Cannabis and psychopathology: 2024 Snapshot of a meandering journey.Indian journal of psychiatry · 2025Review
- Prioritising people who use drugs in health policy: An Australian Capital Territory case study.Drug and alcohol review · 2025Article
- Exploring the impact of drug decriminalization and legalization policies on mental health outcomes: A scoping review.PLOS mental health · 2025Article
- The war on drugs is a war on us: young people who use drugs and the fight for harm reduction in the Global South.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- Article
- Decriminalisation and the end of AIDS: keep the promise, follow the science, and fulfill human rights.Sexual and reproductive health matters · 2023Review
- Decriminalization thresholds for drug possession: A multi-criteria policy analysis framework.The International journal on drug policy · 2023Article
- Analysis of the UK Government's 10-Year Drugs Strategy-a resource for practitioners and policymakers.Journal of public health (Oxford, England) · 2023Article
- Medical Use, Decriminalization, and Legalization of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances-What Does It Mean and What Is Its Current Status in India?Indian journal of psychological medicine · 2023Article
- Effects of cannabis regulation in Switzerland: Study protocol of a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Development and Validation of a Novel and Fast Detection Method forFrontiers in plant science · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo review the metrics and findings of studies evaluating effects of drug decriminalisation or legal regulation on drug availability, use or related health and social harms globally.
designSystematic review with narrative synthesis. DATA SOURCES: We searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science and six additional databases for publications from 1 January 1970 through 4 October 2018. INCLUSION CRITERIA: Peer-reviewed articles or published abstracts in any language with quantitative data on drug availability, use or related health and social harms collected before and after implementation of DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Two independent reviewers screened titles, abstracts and articles for inclusion. Extraction and quality appraisal (modified Downs and Black checklist) were performed by one reviewer and checked by a second, with discrepancies resolved by a third. We coded study-level outcome measures into metric groupings and categorised the estimated direction of association between the legal change and outcomes of interest.
resultsWe screened 4860 titles and 221 full-texts and included 114 articles. Most (n=104, 91.2%) were from the USA, evaluated cannabis reform (n=109, 95.6%) and focussed on legal regulation (n=96, 84.2%). 224 study outcome measures were categorised into 32 metrics, most commonly prevalence (39.5% of studies), frequency (14.0%) or perceived harmfulness (10.5%) of use of the decriminalised or regulated drug; or use of tobacco, alcohol or other drugs (12.3%). Across all substance use metrics, legal reform was most often not associated with changes in use.
conclusionsStudies evaluating drug decriminalisation and legal regulation are concentrated in the USA and on cannabis legalisation. Despite the range of outcomes potentially impacted by drug law reform, extant research is narrowly focussed, with a particular emphasis on the prevalence of use. Metrics in drug law reform evaluations require improved alignment with relevant health and social outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.