Canada's government on Tuesday withdrew part of a program that allows people in British Columbia to possess small amounts of drugs, including heroin and cocaine, without fear of criminal charges. At the province's request and after public backlash, people in British Columbia are no longer allowed to use drugs in public places.
Under the changes, which came into force immediately, adults will still be able to possess small quantities of drugs. But they will now have to use them in legal residences, safe injection sites and other harm reduction centers set up by health authorities.
The recriminalization of public drug use in British Columbia highlights the difficulties governments face as they address the opioid crisis. Even in a province that has been a global pioneer of 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 medical examiner estimated there were a record 2,511 deaths due to toxic drugs 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 quickly emerged and were raised repeatedly in the provincial legislature by members of opposition parties.
Eugenia Oviedo-Joekes, a professor at the University of British Columbia's medical school who studies addiction and public health policy, said the decision amounts to “three steps backwards” in addressing the opioid crisis.
Smoking and drinking in public, he noted, are both successfully restricted without recourse to criminal law, and he criticized both levels of government for recriminalizing public drug use without expanding the availability of safe sites for drug use or take other measures.
“Instead of pursuing improvements, we pursue restrictions,” Professor Oviedo-Joekes said. “That's what's a little frustrating here.”
“This is a health crisis, not a crime crisis,” Ya'ara Saks, federal minister of mental health and addictions, told reporters. “That said, communities need to be safe. People need to have confidence in this in their communities so they can 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 the opioid crisis. The decriminalization plan was supported by police officials and the province's chief coroner.
Public drug use has long been a fact of life in parts of British Columbia, particularly Vancouver. Statistics from the city's police force show that complaints about it have declined since the pilot program began, but 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 near public transport,” Fiona Wilson, the deputy chief of the Vancouver Police Department, he told a parliamentary committee last month. “Additionally, there have been concerns from small businesses about problematic drug use.”
But, he added, police have been unable to follow up on complaints since decriminalization: “If there's someone who's with their family at the beach and there's a person next to them smoking crack, that's not a police matter.”
In response, the provincial government last year attempted for the first time to ban public drug use in public places such as parks, beaches, playgrounds and areas near workplaces. But a British Columbia Supreme Court judge issued an injunction against the ban, and then ruled that it threatened to cause “irreparable harm” to drug users by pushing them into less safe areas.
David Eby, the premier of the province whose government faces elections this year, asked the federal government two weeks ago to once again make public drug use a crime.
Garth Mullins, a member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, said the city's severe housing problems mean that many of the province's approximately 225,000 drug users do not have a private residence and that safe injection sites lack the capacity to address the problem. They.
“This will force people back into the alleys and the shadows, and that's not good,” he said. “It will mean more people will get arrested, get records and end up in prison for simple possession.”
Mullins also argued that 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 these feelings are fomented by conservative politicians.”
