Canada announced on Tuesday (31) that it will decriminalize the possession of hard drugs starting next year in a pilot project in the western province of British Columbia. Authorities in the region grapple with an opioid crisis that has claimed thousands of deaths and are trying to medically treat addictions rather than incarcerating users.
The bill establishes that adults in the region cannot be arrested if they are caught with up to 2.5 grams of hard drugs – the police will also not be able to confiscate the substances. Possession of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine, among other narcotics will be tolerated. The program will last for three years.
“For many years, ideological opposition to harm reduction has cost lives,” Federal Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Carolyn Bennett said in an interview to announce the project. If caught with the substances, users will receive information on how to access medical help to treat their addiction.
“We are doing this to save lives and also to give drug users dignity and decision-making power,” added Bennett, emphasizing that the initiative does not represent “legalization”. According to her, the program will serve as a reference for other jurisdictions in Canada. Several other cities, including Montreal and Toronto, have expressed a desire to implement similar measures.
Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart said the decision “fundamentally reshapes drug policy to favor health care.” The city is considered the epicenter of Canada’s opioid crisis.
Stewart called the move “historic and courageous”. According to him, the project represents a pioneering step “in the fight to save lives from the poisonous drug crisis” and has the potential to reduce petty crimes that are usually related to chemical dependence.
This Wednesday (1st), the left-wing New Democratic Party is expected to present a bill to decriminalize drug possession across the country. Analysts, however, believe that the bill will be rejected on the floor of Parliament.
British Columbia will be the second jurisdiction in North America to decriminalize hard drugs. In 2020, the US state of Oregon passed a law for users caught with small amounts to pay a fine and participate in a recovery program for dependents. The experiment, so far, has had timid results — few people have adhered to treatments, while spending on police surveillance has decreased. In Ohio, police officers seek out dependents to provide treatment rather than arrest.
In British Columbia, substance abuse has caused thousands of deaths. Chemical dependency minister Sheila Malcolmson told the AFP news agency in November that the province was facing an “overdose crisis causing terrible loss of life”.
The pandemic has exacerbated its effects, Malcolmson said Tuesday. “Shame and fear prevent people from accessing the health care they need,” he said. “And the fear of being criminalized has led many people to overlook their addiction and use drugs on their own.”
According to federal government data, 26,690 people died from an opioid overdose in Canada from January 2016 to September 2021.
In British Columbia, an estimated six people die every day from opioid-related poisoning. The province has recorded more than 2,200 deaths last year and nearly 9,400 since the region’s head of public health, Bonnie Henry, declared an emergency in 2016.
