Don’t be surprised if BC backs out of decriminalization before the vote

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VICTORIA – Premier David Eby offered numerous excuses this week for the latest bad news about the NDP government’s troubled experiment with decriminalization and a safer supply of illicit drugs.

He blamed COVID-19: “The implementation of decriminalization occurred during the pandemic. “There were big, important decisions that had to be made in a short period of time.”

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He blamed the police and the opposition. “As for the implementation of this entire project, we did it with the support of the police chiefs of the province. We did it with the support of all parties.”

He blamed the courts: “The British Columbia Supreme Court says we can’t regulate hard drugs the same way we do alcohol or tobacco, which is an unusual and concerning decision for us.”

In fact, Eby criticized almost everyone except the New Democrats themselves for launching the project without the necessary preparation.

The prime minister was reacting to devastating testimony before a federal parliamentary committee from Fiona Wilson, deputy chief of police in Vancouver, and Dwayne McDonald, deputy commissioner of the RCMP in British Columbia.

Both acknowledged that so far decriminalization has had more negative than positive impacts.

McDonald: “Since decriminalization, our overdose deaths have not decreased in British Columbia, nor have overdose rates.”

Wilson confirmed what the New Democrats have repeatedly denied: that there has been a significant diversion of safely supplied drugs into the illicit market. She testified that diversion accounts for 50 percent of the safely supplied drugs police find during seizures.

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The prime minister was shocked by the news:

“The first time we heard that data from the VDP was in the presentation to the committee, so we are following up with the VPD on this,” the prime minister told reporters on Tuesday. “We want to identify how and where it is diverted so we can minimize the diversion.”

British Columbia Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth has repeatedly stated that “there is no evidence of widespread diversion of medications from safer supplies.”

In retrospect, the lack of evidence was probably because the government did not ask for data on safe supply diversion and did not want to listen to it as it emerged from a growing number of police detail and media reports.

Wilson, who is also president of the British Columbia Police Chiefs Association, also spoke about how decriminalization had tied the hands of police.

“There are many places where we have absolutely no authority to address the problem of drug use,” he testified, referring to places that are now exempt from arrest for drug use and possession.

“If you have someone who is with their family on the beach and there is a person next to them smoking crack, it is not a police matter because a beach is currently not an exception to the exemption.

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“These are all things that we raised before decriminalization came into effect that we believe were not adequately addressed,” Wilson added, in response to Eby’s implication that the police were fully behind the version of decriminalization of the NDP government.

Eby promised to renew efforts to restrict public drug use as it relates to police. So far, his administration has failed to produce legislation that can withstand a court challenge from advocates of more open drug use.

The province lost the first round when the British Columbia Supreme Court granted a temporary injunction against the implementation of the law. He lost a runoff when the appeals court refused to lift the injunction.

Recently, the Eby government had to agree to extend the court order to give its lawyers time to produce regulations that addressed the court’s objections.

Eby’s legislation also did not explicitly address the latest eruption over open drug use in the province’s hospitals. Initially, the New Democrats also denied that widespread practice. Then Health Minister Adrian Dix suggested establishing a safe drinking area in each hospital, but the next day he abandoned that idea.

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“There will be no provincial mandate requiring each hospital to have a consumption area because all hospitals do not have this problem,” Eby explained. “There is a rule in the hospital that says no smoking of tobacco and of course no smoking of hard drugs. “The Minister of Health is working with experts to ensure everything necessary is in place to ensure everyone follows the rules.”

He left up in the air how the rules will be enforced, given that police have already said there is no law against what is clearly happening in more than one hospital.

Eby rejected any intention to follow the lead of Oregon, which recently abandoned a three-year experiment with decriminalization.
At the same time, he hinted that the New Democrats might be reconsidering the experiment.

“All of us recognize that the program needs to respond and evolve to the concerns of British Columbians and what we are seeing in communities,” he acknowledged.

Unless the PM can find better excuses for failure than he expressed this week, don’t be too surprised if BC backs out of decriminalization before the election.

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