Palmer: Prime Minister moving closer to mea culpa on drug decriminalization

Article content

VICTORIA – Premier David Eby now admits his NDP government should have done more from the start to restrict open drug use under its embattled decriminalization experiment in British Columbia.

Eby admitted this on Friday when he announced that the province was seeking help from the federal government “to make public drug use illegal in British Columbia.”

Article content

“I absolutely accept the criticism that these authorities are necessary and have been necessary for a while,” Eby told reporters. “That should have been there, that should have been there. “Clearly, in retrospect, the police needed those authorities.”

Article content

Those comments were the closest Eby came to uttering a mea culpa for the slow-motion fiasco that has been the NDP government’s experiment with decriminalization.

Otherwise, when addressing why it took until the second year of the experiment for the government to get to this point, Eby made excuses.

The province “leaned too heavily” on the idea that the public intoxication law could be used to curb open drug use. He faced a “significant challenge” in seizing drugs and arresting their users, when possession and use were no longer a crime.

The New Democrats worried that a crackdown on open drug use would undermine their goal of “eliminating stigma” and encouraging addicts to “seek help.”

The prime minister also blamed the courts for the delay.

When the province finally bowed to public outcry and enacted restrictions on open drug use, the British Columbia Supreme Court, siding with drug users’ rights, issued a temporary injunction against their implementation.

The court order, still in place, was one of the last two straws that led the prime minister to seek help from Ottawa.

Article content

Article content

“I received a report from the attorney general on the status of the litigation that indicated there was no end in sight to the injunction… and that the case itself could drag on for up to a year,” Eby explained.

“The second factor was the rapid escalation of the situation on the ground, especially in relation to hospitals and restaurant use. It became clear that even the authorities we had tried to impose at the provincial level would have to be expanded further.”

Those outrages came to light through persistent work in the period in question by the BC United Opposition and devastating coverage by several BC news outlets, including this one.

The revelations were initially met with outright denials and ridicule from the NDP side, this being a government that seems incapable of recognizing when its critics are right.

But in backtracking on Friday, Eby grudgingly acknowledged that the New Democrats had been battered by public opinion, including by some of their own supporters.

“I just want to assure people that we heard you,” he proclaimed. “We see those problems too. “I want you and your family to be safe in your community and we are giving police the tools they need to address this issue.”

Article content

The New Democrats face major challenges in implementing what Eby and Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth described as “recriminalisation”.

The province has formally asked the federal government to reinstate restrictions under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act against the use and possession of illicit drugs in public spaces in BC.

Only private homes, shelter spaces and treatment clinics would be exempt, under what Eby characterized as a “tough love” policy toward drug users.

“If I had my preference, these (restrictions) would be in place today and, frankly, they would have been in place a while ago,” Eby said. “We don’t have a timeline from Ottawa yet, but we do have a commitment to address this urgently and implement these changes. My hope is as quickly as possible.”

He also hopes the new federal regulation can survive any court challenges.

The other big challenge has to do with Eby’s promise of “zero tolerance for illicit drugs in hospitals, outside of areas designated for addiction treatment under medical supervision.”

Last week, the premier said “there will not be a province-wide mandate for every hospital to have an overdose prevention site or consumption area.”

Article content

Apparently the plan now is to establish safe spaces for addicts to use drugs and specialized teams to supervise drug use. But open drug use has gotten out of control in hospitals and it will not be easy to control the problem.

The New Democrats insist there are no plans to abandon other aspects of decriminalization. It is an open question whether enough remains of the experiment to judge its success or failure.

Privately, New Democrats hope the changes will be enough to put an end to the horror stories about open drug use that have dominated news coverage in recent weeks.

As for the prime minister, compare this episode to the way his predecessor handled the renovation of the Royal British Columbia Museum.

John Horgan settled the $800 million fiasco after a single month, taking all the blame.

Eby’s reluctant backtrack on decriminalization came 15 months into an experiment that is moving in fits and starts and still has little to show in terms of positive results.

[email protected]

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know – add VancouverSun.com and LaProvincia.com to your favorites and subscribe to our newsletters here.

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber: for just $14 a month, you can get unlimited access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Vancouver Sun | The province.

Article content