Canada’s government on Tuesday reversed part of a program that allowed people in British Columbia to possess small amounts of drugs, including heroin and cocaine, without fear of criminal charges. At the request of the province and after a public backlash, people in British Columbia are no longer allowed to use drugs in public places.
Under the changes, which take effect immediately, adults will still be able to possess small amounts of drugs. But now they will have to use them in legal residences, safe injection sites and other harm reduction centers established by health authorities.
The recriminalization of public drug use in British Columbia highlights the difficulties governments face in dealing with the opioid crisis. Even in a province that has been a global pioneer in the harm reduction movement, an approach that seeks to reduce risky behavior rather than punish drug users, there are no easy answers.
The province’s coroner estimated that a record 2,511 toxic drug deaths occurred last year. Toxic overdoses kill more people aged 10 to 59 than homicides, suicides, accidents and natural diseases combined in British Columbia, according to the provincial coroner’s office.
The goals of decriminalizing possession were to allow police officers to focus their time on large drug distributors rather than users and to encourage users to be open to treatment. But concerns about public drug use have arisen quickly and have been repeatedly raised in the provincial legislature by members of opposition parties.
Eugenia Oviedo-Joekes, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s faculty of medicine who studies addiction and public health policy, said the decision amounted to “three steps backwards” in addressing the opioid crisis.
He noted that smoking and drinking in public are successfully restricted without recourse to criminal law, and criticized both levels of government for re-criminalizing public drug use without expanding the availability of safe places for drug use or taking other drugs. measures.
“Instead of looking for improvements, we look for restrictions,” Professor Oviedo-Joekes said. “That’s what’s a little frustrating here.”
“This is a health crisis, not a criminal one,” Ya’ara Saks, federal minister of mental health and addictions, told reporters. “That said, communities must be safe. “People need to have confidence in it in their own communities to be able to move freely and feel comfortable.”
The decriminalization of possession of small amounts of drugs was a three-year exemption that began in January 2023 and was one of several measures taken by British Columbia to address its opioid crisis. The decriminalization plan had the support of police officials and the province’s chief coroner.
Public drug use has long been a reality in some parts of British Columbia, particularly Vancouver. City police statistics show that complaints about it have decreased since the start of the pilot program, but its public use appears to have spread beyond the neighborhoods where it was most common before decriminalization.
“There have been several high-profile cases of problematic drug use in public places, including parks, beaches and around public transportation,” Fiona Wilson, deputy chief of the Vancouver Police Department, told a parliamentary committee last month. “In addition, small businesses have expressed concerns about problematic drug use.”
But, he added, the police were unable to act on complaints after decriminalization: “If you have someone who is with their family on the beach and there is a person next to them smoking crack, it is not the police’s business.”
In response, the provincial government first attempted to ban public drug use last year in public places such as parks, beaches, playgrounds and areas near workplaces. But a British Columbia Supreme Court judge filed an injunction against the ban, later ruling that it threatened to cause “irreparable harm” to drug users by pushing them into less safe areas.
David Eby, the provincial premier whose government faces an election this year, called on the federal government to make public drug use a crime again two weeks ago.
Garth Mullins, a member of the Vancouver Area Drug Users Network, said acute housing problems in the city mean many of the province’s estimated 225,000 drug users do not have a private residence, and injection sites Insurance companies lack the capacity to deal with them.
“This will force people back into the alleys and into the shadows, and that’s not good,” he said. “This will mean more people will be arrested, get records and go to jail for simple possession.”
Mullins also questioned whether public drug use has become a substantial problem in British Columbia since decriminalization.
“There is no data or evidence that there is any real danger to people,” he said. “So it’s all about feelings and those feelings are being stoked by conservative politicians.”