FIRST READING: How drug decriminalization in B.C. could make everything worse

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Today marks the official start of B.C. becoming the first jurisdiction in Canada to decriminalize personal use possession of hard drugs such as meth and heroin.

According to public health experts, the move will drive more addicts into treatment and ultimately bring about a reduction in Canada’s sky-high rates of overdose deaths. It’s why decriminalization has been an explicit policy goal of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, and has even garnered endorsement by the National Post editorial board. “There is no recovery path for people who are dead,” wrote federal addictions minister Carolyn Bennett, a former family physician, in a December National Post op-ed touting the B.C. approach to the overdose crisis. 

But today, we’ll be looking at the opposite argument: That B.C.’s decriminalization plan could well just make everything worse.

Hard drugs are already basically decriminalized in B.C.’s worst overdose centres

The thrust of the decriminalization argument is that it will reduce the stigma of being an addict, thus allowing drug users to emerge from the shadows where they can be protected from harm and ultimately spurred into recovery. “The Province is taking a critical step to end the shame and stigma that prevents people with substance-use challenges from reaching out for life-saving help,” was how BC announced the new decriminalization regime.

But the overdose crisis is worst in the very centres where decriminalization is already the law of the land.

In 2020, the B.C. bureau of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada began openly telling its lawyers to avoid pursuing criminal penalties for personal-use drug possession cases.

It’s a call that’s similarly been taken up by the province’s police forces, most notably in Vancouver, where the Vancouver Police Department says that it has pursued “de facto decriminalization” for at least 10 years.

In a 2021 report, the B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police surveyed the province’s police forces and found that a majority of sworn officers were no longer enforcing Section 4(1) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act – the part that covers personal-use possession. “The data show that the PPSC guideline has effectively decriminalized possession of personal amounts of illicit drugs in British Columbia,” read the report.

Despite all this, the overdose crisis has never been worse, with fatalities concentrated in cities like Vancouver where the push towards non-enforcement has been strongest.

It isn’t being met with a notable increase in treatment options

Supporters of decriminalization often point to the example of Portugal, which saw a measurable decrease in its rates of “problem drug users” after decriminalizing personal-use possession of virtually all drugs in 2001.

But Portugal did far more than simply discard jail time for addicts. The policy was accompanied by an aggressive regime of civil penalties, which included drug confiscation and appearances before a Commission for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction that could order mandatory treatment.

At the same time, the Portuguese state poured massive amounts of resources into tracking down and prosecuting drug dealers in order to cut off supply.

Aside from decriminalization, B.C. is not really following through with the other two planks of the Portugal strategy. On the issue of treatment, in particular, B.C. has been expanding its drug recovery capacity at a trickle. In 2021 – which saw 2,200 drug toxicity deaths in the province – BC added just 195 new addiction treatment beds.  

In Victoria – one of the province’s centres for fatal overdoses – the wait time for a medical detox bed is more than 100 days. So, if decriminalization does indeed prompt any Victoria addicts to come out of the shadows and seek help, they’ll have to hold that thought for at least three months.

Oregon’s own experiment with drug decriminalization has largely failed

Not far below B.C.’s southern border is the state of Oregon, a jurisdiction of similar size that pursued a near-identical approach to drug decriminalization just two years ago. The reviews are not great.

A recent audit by the Oregon Health Authority said the measure has been largely ineffective at addressing fatal overdoses and rates of drug abuse, both of which have gotten worse.

The concept pitched to Oregonians in 2020 was that decriminalization would drug users out of the cold to seek help at government harm reduction facilities such as needle exchanges and clinics handing out Naloxone. From there, they could then be urged into treatment.

But a report card found that fewer that one per cent of known Oregon drug users – about 136 people – ever opted to enter rehab in the post-decriminalization era.

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