Plans to significantly roll back British Columbia’s controversial drug decriminalization pilot are being met with mixed reviews from municipal leaders and those working on the frontline of the province’s toxic drug crisis.
On Friday, Premier David Eby announced his NDP government will work directly with Health Canada to amend the rules of the pilot and recriminalize drug use in public spaces including parks, public transit and hospitals.
Law enforcement will be advised not to arrest people for simple possession except in “extraordinary circumstances,” according to a statement from B.C.’s public safety ministry.
The announcement comes after a B.C. Supreme Court justice blocked efforts to legislate similar provisions late last year, citing risks of “irreparable harms” to drug users. The injunction delaying the implementation of the law was upheld by the B.C. Court of Appeal.
The mayors of several B.C. municipalities — including Vancouver, Nanaimo, Maple Ridge and Campbell River — applauded the province’s decision on Friday, which comes after months of pressure from opposition parties, local elected officials and police to revise the project over public safety and disorder concerns.
Lilia Hansen, mayor of Fort St. John, in the province’s northeast, said that while there are “good intentions” behind decriminalization, it was causing concerns in the small city and RCMP officers responding to calls about public drug use had their “hands tied.”
“Drug use, it’s a complex issue. It definitely requires compassion; these are our families, our friends, our neighbours,” she said in an interview Friday afternoon.
“But we have to think about the safety of all of our residents.”
However Hansen expressed concerns that the proper housing, health and employment supports are not present in the community to “stop this hamster wheel” of addiction.
Nanaimo mayor Leonard Krog agreed the changes are the “sensible” thing to do, particularly as decriminalization has dominated provincial and municipal politics in the run-up to the next election, slated for October.
“It’s a step in the right direction and I think it indicates the government is recognizing the depth, breadth and seriousness of this problem,” Krog said in an interview.
Eby announced new funding to expand medication-assisted treatment in B.C. on Friday, and says it will increase security and add addictions physicians in hospitals to address recently raised concerns of drug use in hospitals.
The B.C. Nurses Union and the Health Employees Union also both lauded the move on Friday, saying the safety of health care workers should be the province’s first priority.
B.C. Premier David Eby announced Friday plans to recriminalize drug use in public spaces. He says while it is still important to help drug users, open drug use around kids and other people is not acceptable.
Province accused of circumventing courts
However the reversal has raised concerns from some health care providers, drug policy reform advocates and people working on the frontlines of the crisis, who say recriminalizing drug use in public spaces is “draconian” and will put people’s lives at further risk.
Decriminalization was meant to “bring people out of the alleys” if they don’t have any alternative place to use drugs, said Garth Mullins, a board member with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU).
But Mullins says it was never meant the address the factor driving record deaths in B.C., which is the increasingly toxic and contaminated drug supply.
“I worry that this is going to shove people back into the alleys, that this is going to bring police back into people’s lives,” he said on Friday.
D.J. Larkin, the executive director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, says the move is “deeply disappointing and frankly, quite scary.”
“If we backtrack on this, more of our loved ones will die,” said Larkin.
The Harm Reduction Nurses Association (HRNA), which brought the court challenge to stall the implementation of similar changes via legislation, also accused the province of circumventing the injunction granted by the B.C. Supreme Court.
The province has not adequately increased harm reduction services like overdose prevention sites, expanded safer supply and accessible treatment options that are needed to save lives, say Mullins, Larkin and HRNA.
“The B.C. government’s actions today will put people who use drugs and people who rely on public space at further risk of harm and death,” said Corey Ranger, a registered nurse and HRNA co-founder.
“By imposing these restrictions on the decriminalization pilot without offering real solutions like expanding overdose prevention services and access to housing, the province has declared some lives unworthy of saving.”
