British Columbia drug advocates warn decriminalization shift could cause deaths

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Health Canada’s decision to allow BC to again ban illicit drug use in most public spaces will cause more deaths, says the executive director of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

“This is a bad move for both the provincial government and the federal government,” Brittany Graham said in an interview Wednesday. “We are going to lose more people and there will be blood on their hands.”

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The initial decriminalization exemption in January 2023 required “significant and ongoing engagement with stakeholders,” but that did not happen before BC requested the change, Graham said.

He said his organization sent a letter Monday to the federal Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions opposing the change.

Federal Mental Health and Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks announced Health Canada’s approval on Tuesday.

“They didn’t read our letter. I never got a response,” Graham said.

Prime Minister David Eby said in a separate news conference Wednesday that the goal of decriminalization is to minimize the risk to people who use illicit drugs without compromising public safety. But the government heard from community members and police that they initially missed the mark, he said.

“There is no doubt that after our initial efforts at decriminalization, we had some unintended consequences, such as an increase in public drug use, where the police were not able to use the authorities that we hoped they could use, that is, arrest tosomeone. for being intoxicated in a public place,” Eby said.

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“As a result, people were feeling increasingly unsafe in communities, they were worried about what they saw in parks, playgrounds and other places, and police were telling us they didn’t have the tools they needed.”

But Graham said the suggestion that public drug use had increased was incorrect, pointing to a March news conference in which Vancouver police Insp. Phil Heard said his department had “seen a decrease in public complaints about public consumption”.

Graham said current solutions to the opioid crisis are not easily accessible. He said a VANDU member who wanted to access detox was unable to quickly access services. Instead, he said they set up a tent outside St. Paul’s Hospital in downtown Vancouver so medical help would be nearby while they tried to detox on their own.

Progressively increasing treatment beds is not helpful, he said.

“This is a crisis.”

Graham said stepping up policing won’t fix the problem, which has claimed about 14,400 lives since 2016, and that the province should instead focus on more housing, overdose prevention services and improving wellness services.

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“People are not being given any options right now except to be outside,” he said.

“This will also hurt people who have housing,” he added, pointing to statistics from the BC Coroners Service.

The latest figures released Tuesday by the coroner on illicit drug deaths this year say 84 percent of deaths occurred inside a home, shelter or hotel, while only 15 percent of overdoses occurred outside, in places such as vehicles or parks.

Eby said Wednesday that the recriminalization of public drug use goes “along with initiatives to increase access to treatment and support for people who are struggling.”

“We are working and hope to launch a virtual clinic soon so people can access methadone and suboxone,” he said. “These are treatment medications that reduce opioid cravings and also reduce the risk of overdose.”

BC’s request to Health Canada came after the province attempted to make drug use in public places illegal with its own legislation, but the Harm Reduction Nurses Association challenged the bill in court.

Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson ruled in December that if the laws were enacted, “irreparable harm would be caused.”

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The Harm Reduction Nurses Association said in a statement Tuesday that it was “deeply concerned and frustrated” by Health Canada’s decision, saying the move circumvents the court order.

Karen Ward, a current drug user and drug policy advocate, agreed with the association’s characterization and said BC’s request was “bypassing the judiciary, which is a scary thing and should alarm us all.” “.

“We’ve all been dehumanized, a marginalized group that no one cares about and we’re barely human,” he said of drug users in an interview Wednesday. “People can resist that and I don’t see that happening right now. “It is such a savage violation of Canadian democratic principles.”

He said the best way to address all the problems associated with the unregulated supply of drugs – including crime, poverty, homelessness and overdose deaths – is to regulate it, “like we did with alcohol.”

“That’s what it’s going to take because it’s a huge problem (and) it’s only going to get worse,” he said. “Treatment does not address drug delivery.”

Graham suggested the move has more to do with politics ahead of this fall’s provincial election than minimizing overdose deaths.

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“Everyone is just trying to win seats, whether they are currently elected or want to be elected,” he said. “No one is really thinking about what will be best for people who currently use drugs.”

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