Canada's British Columbia makes U-turn over hard drugs

The decriminalization policy led to increased drug use in public spaces, prompting complaints and criticisms against the government from local politicians, health workers and police.

The Canadian province of British Columbia is reversing its policy of allowing the open use of hard drugs in public.

Premier David Eby said Friday that police will soon have the power again to enforce drug use laws in all public places, including hospitals, restaurants, parks, and beaches.

It brings to an end a much-criticized pilot program that allowed the personal use of some illegal drugs, including cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA, heroin, morphine, and fentanyl.

The program launched in January last year, to remove the stigma associated with drug use that keeps people from seeking help, was supposed to run for three years.

‘Addiction a health issue’

On Friday, Premier Eby said he still believed addiction is a health issue and “not a criminal laws issue.”

“But the compassion for people who are struggling does not mean anything goes,” he said. He expressed empathy for those struggling with addiction, but insisted public safety is paramount.

“We’re taking action to give police the enforcement tools they need to keep parks, hospitals and transit safe from public drug use,” the premier said on X, formerly Twitter.

Concerns over public disorder and drug use

The move comes after Vancouver’s deputy police chief, Fiona Wilson, last week testified at a parliamentary committee about having “absolutely no authority to address problematic drug use” under the decriminalization pilot.

“If you have someone who is with their family at the beach, and there’s a person next to them smoking crack cocaine, it’s not a police matter,” she told the House of Commons health committee.

Police will have the power to ask drug users to leave an area or seize drugs and “only arrest for simple possession of illicit drugs in exceptional circumstances.”

Drug use will still be allowed in private home or at supervised consumption or drug-checking sites.

ss/lo (AP, AFP, Reuters)