ArticlePLOS mental health2025
Exploring the impact of drug decriminalization and legalization policies on mental health outcomes: A scoping review.
Article in PLOS mental health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Self-Injury Mortality: Global Ascertainment and Prevention.Medical principles and practice : international journal of the Kuwait University, Health Science Centre · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
As countries increasingly adopt more liberal drug policies, concerns have emerged about their broader health and social impacts. A complex bidirectional relationship exists between problematic drug use and mental health conditions. This is particularly evident in the co-occurrence of mental health disorders with substance use disorders (SUDs). However, the broader mental health effects of drug policy remain underexplored. This review aims to map existing research on non-SUD mental health outcomes associated with drug decriminalization and legalization policies. We conducted a scoping review following JBI guidelines and the PRISMA-ScR checklist. Studies published between January 2001 and December 2024 were included if they examined non-SUD mental health outcomes related to drug policy changes, with a focus on decriminalization, legalization, or commercialization. We searched Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycInfo, and Web of Science, and manually screened relevant policy reports. Only English-language studies were included. Data extraction and analysis were conducted using Covidence, with a descriptive summary of study characteristics and findings. A total of 55 studies met inclusion criteria, comprising 16 review papers and 39 original research articles (37 quantitative and 2 qualitative). Most evidence came from the United States (n = 29) and Canada (n = 18). No studies examined the mental health impacts of non-cannabis drug policies or decriminalization frameworks. The most frequently assessed outcomes were psychosis, suicide, and depression. This review maps the current evidence base and identifies major gaps, especially concerning decriminalization and policies targeting substances other than cannabis. The heterogeneity in study designs and policy contexts highlights the need for multi-faceted, context-sensitive research to inform future policy.
Identifiers
What Socratic 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 Socratic graph.