Canada’s first pilot project decriminalizing possession of some illicit drugs began in British Columbia in January. A major retreat, in the form of provincial legislation setting limits on public drug use, followed eight months later. The rollback offers a clear lesson for the governments responsible for this important trial.
B.C. Premier David Eby said the proposed legislation to establish prohibitions on illicit drug use in many outdoor spaces was needed because public support for decriminalization as a tool to help save lives was eroding.
Health Canada’s exemption from federal drug laws means that since Jan. 31, adults in B.C. are not being arrested or charged for possessing small amounts of certain illegal drugs most commonly associated with overdoses, nor are their drugs seized. The measure was driven by the relentless loss of life from toxic drugs, and designed to reduce the stigma that can prevent people from seeking help for addiction.
But the policy change brought drug use out into the open in a way that unsettled the public. Mr. Eby conceded that British Columbians felt less safe since the exemption took force. “We need a province where people feel secure in our communities,” he said.
That decriminalization resulted in drug use coming out of the shadows should not have come as a surprise to policy-makers, including Mr. Eby.
The B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police, which supported decriminalization, warned in late 2021 that public order and safety issues would arise from the consumption of illicit drugs in public places. The association called for legislation to give police the tools needed to ensure public safety.
Instead, Ottawa and B.C. forged ahead without those protections in place. The federal government assured Canadians that the experiment would be subjected to rigorous tracking and transparent evaluation of outcomes, to ensure it proves to be in the public interest. “Strong data and evidence is necessary to ensure the exemption is meeting its goals and identifying any unintended negative consequences that must be addressed,” the federal government noted in the conditions of the exemption.
Those unintended consequences did not take long to manifest. Police no longer had any authority to move people along when they were using drugs in problematic circumstances, such as on a playground.
Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas travelled to Victoria in March, just weeks after the new policy came into effect, to advocate for changes to curb drug use in children’s parks, playgrounds, and beaches. A string of municipal governments passed their own bylaws seeking to fill the gaps left by federal and provincial legislators. Mayors that had embraced decriminalization joined the lobby to establish some limits.
With pressure mounting from both police and mayors, B.C.’s minister of mental health and addictions wrote to Ottawa in July to ask for “an immediate and tactical solution” to deal with public use of illicit drugs. The request was based on “widespread community feedback.”
The federal amendment was granted in September to prohibit use in playgrounds, splash pads, wading pools and skate parks. In October, the province went further, and introduced the kind of legislation that police were seeking almost two years ago. If passed, the province will once again prohibit drug use at outdoor recreation areas including parks, beaches and sports fields, as well as within a six-metre radius of building entrances and bus stops.
This change does not make decriminalization a failure. But this trial is supposed to be governed by evidence, not politics. Do the data support this change, which risks pushing drug users out of sight where they are more likely to overdose?
There is no answer, or at least not one the public can see.
In September, the B.C. government published a dashboard – a snapshot of data – that cannot be described as a transparent evaluation of outcomes. If some of the public is losing confidence in decriminalization, Ottawa and B.C. must take responsibility for rushing ahead without putting the necessary guardrails in place. But there is also a lack of public disclosure that is not helping build trust.
This space has long supported decriminalization and welcomed the new policy as a momentous change in the battle against drug overdose deaths. The public deserves to see the data, rather than carefully packaged political messaging.