The federal government is agreeing to British Columbia’s request to recriminalize hard drugs in public spaces, nearly two weeks after the province asked to end its pilot project early over concerns about public drug use.
Mental Health and Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks made the announcement Tuesday in Parliament.
“We have said yes and it takes effect immediately,” Saks told reporters.
BC is just over a year into a three-year pilot project to decriminalize the possession of a small amount of certain illicit drugs, including heroin and cocaine.
But citing safety concerns about public use of those drugs, the British Columbia government asked the federal government on April 26 to make the use of illicit drugs illegal in all public spaces, including hospitals, transit and parks.
Saks said the problem is a “health crisis, not a criminal one,” but that “communities must be safe.”
According to a statement from Saks’ office, the Criminal Code exemptions for possession of small quantities of illicit drugs for personal use will continue to apply in private residences, certain health care clinics, places where people legally take refuge and in prevention centers. overdose and checking sites.
British Columbia Mental Health and Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside said at a news conference Tuesday that those exemptions will give people who use at home the ability to “ask for help without fear of arrest.”
“The vast majority of people who die from toxic drug poisoning do so alone at home,” he said.
“The intent of decriminalization was never to provide space for unrestricted public use of drugs. That was not the intent. The intent was to ensure that people felt that they should not be afraid to ask for help wherever they were using.”
When asked by reporters why it took more than a week and a half for the federal government to make the decision to abandon the pilot program, Saks said it is “the illegal supply of toxic drugs,” and not decriminalization, that is causing deaths. due to overdose.
“Moving towards any type of pilot like the one in British Columbia, we know we have to have a balance between public safety and public health,” he said. “That means there needs to be enough health services, scaled up to meet people where they are, and also that law enforcement has the tools necessary to ensure public safety is a priority.”
Saks added that decriminalization is one of the pillars of the Liberals’ policy approach to addressing the opioid crisis, and that while the federal government recognized the “urgency” of BC’s request, it did not want to make a decision based on “the knee- idiotic reactions.”
The issue sparked a tense debate in the House of Commons last week, when Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pressured the Liberals to accept BC’s request. In a fierce exchange, Poilievre was ejected after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “crazy” for his drug decriminalization policy.
Poilievre and Trudeau returned to the topic Tuesday after the Saks news conference, when the Conservative leader pressed the prime minister on whether he will “try to impose the same radical and extremist policy” in other jurisdictions, paving the way for people to legally
“Smoking crack on children’s soccer fields.”
“Obviously no one in this House does,” Trudeau responded.
“That’s why we agreed with the British Columbia government to modify their pilot project to better accommodate their concerns,” he added, before accusing Poilievre of politicizing the issue.
With files from Rachel Aiello, Senior Digital Parliamentary Reporter at CTVNews.ca and Robert Buffam of CTV News Vancouver