The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) have been meeting for 25 years to educate and empower our members to improve the lives of people who use drugs (PWUD). VANDU has identified prohibition as a key component for many harms associated with drug use. Decriminalization is an acknowledgement that prohibition is harmful and that drug use is a health issue. Policy changes should reflect the needs of PWUD. VANDU has been disappointed to see that both the decriminalization and the more recent public use legislation policies have been heavily influenced by rhetoric rather than evidence. This presentation will give a brief overview into recent history of how the decriminalization exemption was created in BC and review the experiences of PWUD related to the creation and implementation of decriminalization and more recently the proposed public drug use legislation. VANDU has found that very little has been done to educate the general public on what decriminalization is, why our entire society benefits from it and the current success of BC's decriminalization 10 months in. Limited communication has allowed uninformed rhetoric to flourish based on stigmatizing stereotypes leading to the new public use legislation. VANDU will present recent research and anecdotal evidence to demonstrate how drug policies like decriminalization have the potential for positive change for all and when not executed correctly can have devastating consequences on the lives of PWUD.