Interior mayors calling on B.C. to push ahead with ban of illegal drugs in public places

Driven by what they are calling escalating safety concerns and social discord, the mayors of nine Southern Interior cities and towns are asking the province to continue efforts to ban illegal drug use in many public settings and offer better support in addressing the overdose crisis.

The province tabled public drug-use limiting legislation, Bill 34, last October, but it was put on hold last month in response to the Harm Reduction Nurses Association petitioning the court.

The B.C.’s Supreme Court granted an injunction delaying implementation of the law until March 31, so the issues raised could be addressed.

Now, the mayors of Kelowna, Vernon, West Kelowna, Penticton and Princeton along with the districts of Lake Country, Peachland, Summerland and the town of Oliver are asking the province for their continued support of the initial legislation and weighing in on their disappointment with the injunction.

“While we recognize and respect the court’s independence in its decisions, we urge for the province to continue on the path that balances the needs of broader community health and safety in your consideration of the province’s next legal steps and to preserve the continued enactment of Bill 34,” reads the letter, which was distributed Thursday.

“We hear and experience the impacts of the opioid crisis, the public health emergency, decriminalization policies and gaps in the health and mental health-care systems every day on our streets.”

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These community leaders noted that the legislation was tabled and advanced to royal assent through due legislative process as a response to concerns on the need to strengthen public safety guardrails that consider the “whole of communities as part of the provincial decriminalization pilot.”

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“We understand the drive from various public interest groups for compassion and efforts to remove stigma for those who use illicit substances,” reads the letter.

“In the absence of the provincial health system providing sufficient treatment centres and harm reduction sites that are readily and easily accessible for those who seek support for substance addiction, the scales are being tipped in the opposite direction.”

Residents and businesses, the mayors said,  are experiencing continued escalating safety concerns and costs while frustrations continue to mount with the social discord on the streets of our cities.

“Families in our communities have a right to enjoy our parks, fields and beaches without having their young children witnessing open drug use of meth, cocaine and heroin or worrying about exposure to the detrimental impacts of toxic substances and drug paraphernalia; business owners, employees and customers have a right to come and go from their place of business without an individual actively using drugs or being in a drug-induced state resulting in unpredictable behaviour; and those who use our transit systems have a right to sit on the public infrastructure benches provided at bus stops for the intended purpose of seeking respite as they await their next ride instead of the space being overtaken by an individual using drugs publicly,” they wrote.

“These public spaces are intended to be for the enjoyment of all, that we as municipalities have built and maintain using our resident’s tax dollars.”

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Decriminalization, on its own, they add, will not address the opioid crisis.

“There is an urgent need for unprecedented and expedient changes to the health care systems, and we continue to urge the province to create more treatment, support and complex care spaces across our region and Province urgently to truly address the opioid crisis and preserve health, safety and social order in communities,” it reads.

The province moved to changes to decriminalization in response to municipal governments asking for more support regarding the three-year pilot project on decriminalization, which decriminalizes the personal possession of certain illicit drugs in the province.

Decriminalization allows any adult to legally carry up to 2.5 grams of certain illicit drugs.

At least 2,511 people died from unregulated toxic drugs in B.C. throughout 2023, an average of seven people a day.

It’s the highest number of deaths since a public health emergency was declared in 2016.

In Kelowna, 101 people died in 2023 from the toxic drug supply, compared to 47 when the emergency was declared seven years earlier. In Vernon, there were 51 deaths, a rise from the 12 deaths reported in 2016.

In Penticton, there were 22 deaths last year, compared to seven in 2016.

Fentanyl was detected in 86 per cent of deaths each year between 2017 and 2023, according to B.C. Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe, who provided an update on the public health emergency on Wednesday.