Canada announced Tuesday that it will decriminalize hard drugs in a pilot project in Columbia Britain seeking to tackle an opioid crisis that is leaving thousands dead in treatment, by treating addictions instead of jailing drug users for possession.
In response to a request from the province of British Columbia, the federal minister of Mental Health and AddictionsCarolyn Bennett, said that on January 31, 2023, an exemption to the law that allows the possession of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and other hard drugs will take effect for a period of three years.
Adults in the province of Pacific Coast They cannot be arrested or charged for possession of personal doses of up to 2.5 grams of hard drugs, and the product cannot be seized by police.
Instead, users will receive information on how to access medical help for addictions.
“For too many years, the ideological opposition to harm reduction has cost lives,” Bennett said at a news conference announcing the pilot program.
“We do this to save lives, but also to give drug users their dignity and decision-making,” he said, adding that it would become “a model for other jurisdictions in Canada.”
Various cities, including Montréal and Torontohave indicated their desire to obtain similar exemptions.
A small left-wing faction in Parliament, the New Democratic Partywill also present a bill on Wednesday to decriminalize drug possession throughout the country, although it is expected to be defeated.
British Columbia thus becomes the second jurisdiction in North America to decriminalize hard drugs, after the US state of Oregon did so in November 2020, offering mitigated results so far, as few people took advantage of addiction treatment, while spending on policing fell.
According to federal government data, 26,690 people died from opioid overdoses in Canada between January 2016 and September 2021.
It is estimated that in British Columbia six people die every day from opioid-related poisoning.
More than 2,200 people died last year, and about 9,400 since the province’s public health chief, Bonnie Henry, declared a public health emergency in 2016.
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