B.C. is closing the book on its experiment with drug decriminalization.
What happened: After three tumultuous years, B.C.’s first-in-Canada pilot decriminalizing the personal possession of illicit drugs will come to an end on Jan. 31. The province announced it won’t renew the program, as it “hasn’t delivered the results that we hoped for.”
Catch-up: The program was designed to reduce stigma attached to drug addiction and push cases out of the legal system toward health services providers. However, it was quickly met with backlash over a perceived staggering increase in public drug consumption. This resulted in a new ban that limited drug use to private residences and treatment centres.
Big picture: The province hasn’t specified how the program fell short, but the big issue (besides causing endless controversy) appears to be a failure to push a critical mass of users to health services.
While safe injection site use is up, drug possession seizures resurged after the 2024 ban. There are an average 403 seizures a month, a rather small dip from 509 in 2022.
And while drug overdose deaths are down from 2023 levels, it’s highly contested that the pilot did anything to contribute to this — and even then, drug mortality rates remain alarmingly high, with an average of 4.8 drug-related deaths still occurring every day in B.C.
Why it matters: Debate continues over whether decriminalization is a flawed concept, or if it was a good idea doomed to fail by poor implementation and a lack of supporting measures. Regardless, it feels safe to say that it won’t be tried again in Canada for a long time.—QH