B.C.’s drug decriminalization pilot project will expire on Jan. 31 and it is still unclear what that change might look like.
The three-year pilot removed criminal penalties for the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs, which was aimed at reducing the stigma around drug use to encourage people to seek help, but it quickly became controversial as it allowed people to use drugs in public.
On Tuesday, B.C. Premier David Eby said the government is still working “closely” with the federal government on the issue.
“But let me be clear. We are not going back to the old policy of decriminalized, public drug use in British Columbia,” Eby said.
“It didn’t work. And we ended that. So we’re in close conversations with the federal government. I look forward to having more to share soon about that.”
In 2024, Ottawa approved B.C.’s request to recriminalize drug possession in public.
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Eby concluded in 2024 that the changes were needed after the attorney general said that a legal battle over the province’s own attempt to legislate restrictions on public drug use could be tied up in court for at least a year.
He said those concerns were compounded by the “escalating situation” on the ground, including concerns about drug use in hospitals and public places like restaurants.
Possession remains decriminalized in private residences and some health-care settings.
One advocate said the issue became too politicized.
“What we saw is sort of the BC Conservatives and the federal Conservatives under Pierre Poilievre just start attacking every kind of harm reduction programme that had ever been thought of, including using disinformation and Trump-style lies,” Garth Mullins, author and host of the Crackdown podcast, and advocate and board member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, told Global News.
“So they polluted the whole discussion with this sort of toxic politics from the right. And that made the BC NDP start to worry that they were going to lose power if they had to run an election on decriminalization. So I think the premier wanted to get rid of decriminalization or at least get it off of the public’s mind before the election in 2024. And so that’s what he did. And that’s what we saw. We saw our lives become once again, political fodder.”
Mullins said cancelling the program created a lot of confusion and he hopes there will be more information shared as the deadline approaches.
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