Legalization vs. Decriminalization

Legalizationnoun

The process of making something legal, the process to legalize, decriminalization.

Legalizationnoun

The act of making legal.

Legalizationnoun

the act of making lawful

Legalization

Legalization is the process of removing a legal prohibition against something which is currently not legal. Legalization is a process often applied to what are regarded, by those working towards legalization, as victimless crimes, of which one example is the consumption of illegal drugs (see drug legalization).

Decriminalizationnoun

The act of making a previously criminal activity no longer treatable as a criminal offence.

Decriminalizationnoun

The act of turning a criminal into a non-criminal by making their activities legal.

Decriminalizationnoun

legislation that makes something legal that was formerly illegal

Decriminalization

Decriminalization or decriminalisation is the reclassification in law relating to certain acts or aspects of such to the effect that they are no longer considered a crime, including the removal of criminal penalties in relation to them. This reform is sometimes applied retroactively but otherwise comes into force from either the enactment of the law or from a specified date.