Decriminalization thresholds for drug possession: A multi-criteria policy analysis framework.

Background: Decriminalization of personal possession of drugs has been proposed as an approach to mitigate the harms of drug prohibition. Despite growing interest, particularly in Canadian settings, analyses of approaches to defining the parameters of what constitutes personal possession within decriminalization models are lacking. Using the Province of British Columbia, Canada, as a case study, we undertook an evidence-based multi-criteria policy analysis of three models for defining personal possession: 1) a model that defines personal possession as the absence of evidence of drug trafficking; 2) a cumulative threshold of 15 grams; and 3) a cumulative threshold of 2.