The B.C. government has requested a federal exemption that would allow the province to decriminalize small amounts of hard drugs.
Sheila Malcolmson, B.C.'s minister of mental health and addictions services, said the province hopes decriminalization would serve to remove some of the stigma around drug use, and increase the likelihood of drug users accessing treatment.
"I hear that shame and fear keeps people from accessing life-saving services and treatments, and shame and fear can make people hide their drug use," Malcolmson said. "And especially at a time of terribly toxic supply, using alone can mean dying alone."
Approximately 7,700 people have been killed by toxic drugs across British Columbia since the province declared the overdose crisis a public health emergency in 2016, according to the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions.
While overdose deaths decreased before the COVID-19 pandemic, they have since reached all-time highs, despite what Malcolmson called a "historic" increase in services that includes a doubling of supervised consumption sites and more than 100 adult treatment beds.
"As the coroner has noted, some days we are losing six people per day to toxic drugs," she added. "We have not ended the public health emergency. And so we must do more, and today represents the next step."
B.C.'s request to Health Canada, made under Section 56 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, would remove criminal penalties for individuals carrying up to 4.5 cumulative grams of drug such as heroin, fentanyl and cocaine.
"Substance use and addiction is a public health issue, it is not a criminal justice issue," Malcolmson said.
The province said social services groups, Indigenous organizations, municipalities, law enforcement groups and advocacy organizations all participated in its application process.
Not everyone supports the proposal, however. The B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police issued a statement backing the idea of decriminalizing small amounts of drugs for personal use, but criticizing the proposed limit of 4.5 grams as too high.
The organization wrote that allowing that amount of drugs could be exploited by "predatory drug traffickers" and lead to an "increase in public consumption."
Conversely, the Pivot Legal Society slammed the proposal for not going far enough. The non-profit advocacy group said the cumulative threshold for possession would exclude approximately half of opioid users in the province.
"We know this stuff. We know how much dope people use and possess," said Garth Mullins, a member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, in a statement provided by Pivot. "But when governments change the fine print and insist on lower possession thresholds, half of us get left behind."
Without the protection of a hypothetical Health Canada exemption, those drug users would continue to be "criminalized, harassed, cuffed and jailed," Mullins said.
Pivot also questioned the decision to only decriminalize possession among users age 19 and over, calling it "particularly concerning given B.C.'s track record of drafting legislation that would force youth into involuntary hospitalization upon experiencing overdoses."
- with files from CTV -