Liberals non-committal as B.C. premier joins call for drug decriminalization

OTTAWA – B.C. Premier John Horgan has joined a growing chorus of voices calling for the federal government to decriminalize drugs, as overdose deaths reach grim new heights in his province during the pandemic.

Horgan sent a letter Monday to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling for the decriminalization of small, personal amounts of drugs like heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine. In the letter he said it is time to accept that drug addiction is not a problem that can be solved through the criminal justice system.

“Criminal prohibitions are ineffective in deterring drug use and criminalization of drug possession leads to both individual and systemic stigma, and discrimination that prevents people from seeking services,” he said.

Decriminalization would not make hard drugs legal, like with marijuana, but would instead allow police officers to issue tickets or divert a user to an addiction program. Selling, trafficking, importing or producing the drugs would still remain a crime.

B.C. saw its worst ever month for overdose deaths in June, with 175 people dying, a 130 per cent increase over June 2019. Overdose numbers have been on a steady rise throughout the pandemic and Horgan said the scale of the tragedy is enormous.

“Overdose continues to be the leading cause of unnatural death in British Columbia and life expectancy at birth continues to decline in the province largely due to this health emergency.”

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Horgan said the issue is about more than just the grim statistics and called on Trudeau for immediate action.

“We are losing our family members and our friends. Our neighbours and our colleagues. We must do more.”

In a statement from Health Minister Patty Hajdu’s office, the Liberals said they were cognizant the pandemic had made a bad situation worse, but did not commit to any kind of decriminalization.

“This crisis, now intensified by the pandemic, continues to be one of the most serious public health threats in Canada’s recent history, and our government remains committed to a compassionate approach to address it,” reads the statement.

The Liberals pointed to their record on opening some access to safe supply, allowing more safe injection sites and Good Samaritan legislation passed in the last parliament that protects people from prosecution if they call 911 during an overdose.

“Our government remains committed to advancing evidence-based responses to help reverse the trend of opioid overdose deaths and other substance-related harms in Canada.”

Horgan is not alone in his call for decriminalization.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police released a paper earlier this month calling for a change with a focus on treatment and diversion for people arrested with small amounts of drugs.

“We must adopt new and innovative approaches if we are going to disrupt the current trend of drug overdoses impacting communities across Canada. Merely arresting individuals for simple possession of illicit drugs has proven to be ineffective,” reads the association’s report.

The Conservative party continues to oppose any proposal to decriminalize drugs. No MPs were available on Tuesday, but in March, MP John Brassard said it was the wrong way to go in addressing the crisis.

“These policies will do nothing to help Canadians struggling with addiction on their path to recovery and will exacerbate the opioid crisis tearing apart our communities.”

Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith put a private member’s bill forward last year and again this spring, which would have moved toward decriminalization. He said the government should respond immediately to Horgan’s call and provide an exemption to British Columbia.

“We’ve got to, as a federal government, respect his call for urgent action and we should issue an exemption for the province of B.C. under the [Controlled Drugs and Substances Act] to allow for that urgent and immediate action,” he said

Erskine-Smith said that could be the first step with a broader task force looking into decriminalization — as the police chiefs have called for — to come up with new legislation and approaches for the government.

He said a task force could look at a broad range of ideas on how to move ahead with decriminalization and make sure there were supports in place to help people dealing with an addiction.

He said the idea has always received push back from the Liberal cabinet, but he believes the politics are changing.

“I don’t expect there’s an appetite to take a national step tomorrow, though, I do think there may be an appetite to heed the call from the police chiefs to strike a task force to look into what options might be, and then to assess those options down the road.”

Erskine-Smith said the pandemic has given Canadians new levels of confidence and trust in public health experts who have long called for decriminalization.

“We see thousands of Canadians unnecessarily lose their lives because of a contaminated drug supply and because of prohibitionist drug policies that are proven to make matters worse.”

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