This article examine whether the choice of decriminalizing the possession for personal use of illicit drugs adopted by several countries has led to less use of criminal sanctions against the users and more care for problematic users, considering the influence of the political, social, economic, legal and judicial context of the country in which this choice was made. This will allow us to identify the elements that can increase or decrease the benefits of this legal choice. To this end, we will first present the theoretical foundations for examining this choice and the methodological criteria which have resulted in the choice of the countries which are the subject of our review. Subsequently, we will present the European countries that have chosen this policy and examine their legal translation and the contextual elements that have come to modulate the implementation. We will do the same with the countries of Latin America that have made this choice, showing the specificity of their situation. We conclude by presenting the main points that emerges from this overview on the contextual elements that come to modulate the benefits and the harms of this choice. This will make it possible to identify the elements necessary for a policy of decriminalizing the possession of drugs for personal use to constitute a step towards a policy on drugs in public health where the criminal sanctions are a last resort.