‘Wacko’ or ‘symbolic’: lessons from BC’s drug decriminalization – iPolitics

Now a campaign slogan and House of Commons meme, British Columbia’s drug decriminalization pilot began as a response to record-breaking rates of drug-related deaths. Now that the three-year trial is nearing its end, it’s not clear whether it was successful or not — it depends on who you ask.

At the request of the Government of British Columbia, Health Canada issued an exemption to the province in 2023 to the criminalization of personal possession of certain illegal drugs. 

Under the exemption, which came into effect on Jan. 31, 2023 and is referred to as a form of decriminalization, adults in B.C. were not subject to criminal charges or drug seizure if they were found in possession of up to 2.5 grams of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine or MDMA.

Youth possession, drug selling or trafficking, and possession of more than 2.5 grams remained illegal, as do other illegal drugs not covered under the exemption.

Then, following public outcry about the presence of drugs and drug use in public, the exemption was amended to prohibit possession in public spaces; under the new exemption, possession is permitted only in private residences, healthcare clinics, overdose prevention and drug checking sites, and places where people are lawfully sheltering.

The idea behind the policy encourages communities to view addiction and drug use as a social health issue rather than a criminal one, the B.C. government has said, following public opinion research that found that 44 per cent of Canadians preferred a focus on health and social services rather than police enforcement. 

In theory, this approach can cause a decrease in stigma around drug use which, over time, can lead people to feel more comfortable seeking treatment and support. But many expected the policy to have an immediate and profound impact on the rate of overdose deaths.

In 2022, the year before the exemption took effect, the British Columbia Coroners Service reported 2,382 unregulated drug deaths: an all-time high.

In 2023, the year the exemption began, that number rose to 2,581 deaths. Then, in 2024, 2,271 unregulated drug deaths were recorded — lower than the three years previous. 

Since the exemption was first announced, there has been public backlash over the policy’s perceived outcomes, and the drug crisis and surrounding policies have been the subject of some of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s campaign platform.

Poilievre has accused former prime minister Justin Trudeau of “legalizing” and “liberalizing” drugs in B.C. and vowed to divert funds away from safe supply programs and into addiction treatments.

When the program was amended in 2024, he told Global News that “from the beginning” the decriminalization trial was “a radical, senseless Trudeau-NDP experiment” that was “doomed for death and destruction.” He said that the “data shows” that this is “exactly what happened” and swore a government led by him would “completely reverse” decriminalization. Which data he is referencing is not specified.

However, there is not just one set of data that can indicate the success or failure of decriminalization, experts say.

Dr. Kora DeBeck is a professor in the School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University and research scientist with the B.C. Centre on Substance Use. She is a substance use and drug policy expert and was involved with the City of Vancouver’s application for decriminalization.

She said most of the backlash surrounding decriminalization can be attributed to misinformation about the intended outcomes of the pilot program.

“The longer-term ways that we would expect that it might impact overdose would be reducing stigma, and so then people would be more open to seeking addiction treatment and seeking healthcare,” she told iPolitics. “Stigma is not something you change overnight, and it’s not something you change with a small but highly symbolic policy change, but the hope is that [decriminalization] could lead to a reduction in stigma.”

Metrics like overdose deaths are not likely to be impacted by the decriminalization policy “in a measurable way,” she explained, because the policy does not address the toxic drug supply; it’s just one tool for one aspect of the drug crisis/ 

“[Decriminalization] was really to reduce interactions between police and people who use drugs and reduce drug seizures,” DeBeck said. “And then, in the long term, there was a hope that it would reduce stigma and change the kind of overall public perception and move away from substance use as being a criminal justice issue to being one of a health issue.”

As part of the decriminalization pilot, the province funded proactive outreach positions across regional and First Nations health authorities to connect people to the required care. 

Between August and October of 2024, these outreach programs reported 3,809 client interactions across the province, and overdose prevention services and supervised consumption sites saw a new high in the number of visits in October 2024 — a total of 81,899 visits.

The province also recorded a 22 per cent increase in the number of naloxone kits that were shipped in B.C..

A harm reduction survey conducted by the province found that people “expressed a sense of relief from knowing that they would not be criminalized for personal possession.”

“For some, a long history of past negative interactions contributed to fear of police,” the report said.

With the exemption, though, DeBeck said the policy in B.C. can no longer be considered decriminalization.

“Instead of personal possession being applied in public spaces, it was limited to people’s private residence, and for people who were homeless, there were some exceptions,” she explained. 

“But essentially, it eroded the foundation of decriminalization, which was that for people in public spaces — because that’s generally where people purchase drugs and where they are most vulnerable and at risk of having them seized or encountering police — that protection was removed and taken away.”

Alberta has taken a different approach to the drug crisis; the province is currently halfway through a ten-year plan to create a “recovery-centred”, “holistic” approach that collaborates with both addiction treatment programs and law enforcement.

The rate of opioid-related deaths have been rising since 2019, peaking in 2023 when a reported 1,870 people died in opioid-related causes. 

In 2024, the number dropped by almost 1,000 with a reported 886 deaths from January to September, the most recent data available. 

On November 8, 2023, Alberta’s government announced a refocusing initiative and the establishment of Recovery Alberta, a new mental health and addiction provincial health agency. Since then, the province has been investing in local health and law enforcement initiatives, including My Recovery Plan (MRP), a digital tool that allows people to assess, plan, monitor and measure their recovery. 

Data from 2023 and 2024 showed that of MRP clients, 38 per cent received addiction treatment services, 32 per cent received addiction recovery services and 42 per cent received medical withdrawal management services.

The Alberta Recovery Model includes plans to add more than 10,000 new publicly funded addiction treatment spaces, eliminate user fees for live-in addiction treatment and expand access to the Virtual Opioid Dependency Program, which offers same-day treatment and medications with telehealth.

The latest report, covering 2023-24, was released in June 2024 and does not include measurable data, as the policies are still in preliminary stages. 

Opioid possession is not decriminalized in Alberta; possession of cocaine or heroin carries a maximum penalty of imprisonment for 7 years on an indictable prosecution. Substances including opium, heroin, methadone, cocaine, codeine, oxycodone, morphine, and all forms of cannabis are illegal to possess.

The program provides “an off-ramp out of addiction instead of perpetual facilitation with policies like unsafe supply,” a spokesperson for Alberta’s Minister of Mental Health and Addiction told iPolitics.

“While we are optimistic to see the decline in opioid-related fatalities, we do not want to wait until someone is at risk of losing their lives before giving them an opportunity for recovery.”

Poilievre’s approach is more aligned with the Alberta government’s. He has also used the B.C. decriminalization pilot as a means to criticize the former Justin Trudeau government; he was ejected from the House of Commons in May for calling decriminalization a “wacko” policy from a “wacko prime minister.” 

Poilievre has focused his messaging around addiction treatment and used B.C.’s decriminalization attempts as ammo; in Vancouver on Apr. 6, he vowed to “ invest in recovery, cut off federal funding for opioids and defund drug dens” and said Alberta’s approach “offers real hope”.

But DeBeck said while treatment programs are necessary, they cannot be the only tool to address the drug crisis.

“[There have been claims that] we can treat our way out of this crisis, and that all we need is addiction treatment, and while we certainly need addiction treatment, it’s a very limited tool,” said DeBeck. “When we consider the context that we’re in, I think a key point is that the majority of people who are dying of an overdose are not defined as dependent on substances, so they wouldn’t qualify for addiction treatment.

“They’re using recreationally. So the idea that addiction treatment would have a big impact on our overdose crisis is misguided,” she continued. “I think it’s magical thinking that is ultimately going to end up hurting people and increasing deaths.”

In an email to iPolitics, a spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Health said that the goal of the decriminalization program has “always” been to ensure people struggling with addiction “get the help they need, when and where they need it.”

“Decriminalization is just one tool in our toolbox,” the Ministry said. “The Province is also working urgently to build a seamless continuum of care from early intervention and prevention, treatment and recovery, harm reduction and more – so people can access care when they need it.”

The province is reporting quarterly on the program’s earliest outcomes. The Ministry of Health said it also tracking data around: connections to services and supports for people who use drugs; trends and changes in law enforcement practices; improvements to experiences and outcomes for people who use drugs, including reduced barriers to care, improved relationships with police, socio-emotional safety and wellbeing and social opportunities; and improvements to Indigenous peoples’ and communities’ experiences and outcomes. 

The most recent report, which was released in February, said Police seizures are associated with increased overdose risk and increase harms experienced by drug users by “putting them in unsafe situations to replace their supply”, like drug debts, property theft or sex work, for example. 

However, as of Nov. 27, 2024, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) no longer supports decriminalization for possession, the organization said in a statement.

Since the exemption came into effect, “police have witnessed trends of concern, including a continued high rate of opioid overdose deaths as well as growing fear among law-abiding community members due to public drug use and drug-related criminal activity,” Commissioner Tom Carrique, president of CACP, said in the statement

Carrique also stressed the importance of “essential” drug enforcement, which he said must work hand-in-hand with “robust”, “evidence-based” treatment models.

A day later, Superintendent Wendy Mehat, president of the BC Association of Chiefs of Police, (BCACP), said BC chiefs were “aligned” with CACP’s statement.

“While the BCACP was open to the notion of decriminalization as one potential tool to achieve these goals, recent developments have prompted a re-evaluation of its effectiveness in the current context,” she said in a statement. “Based on evidence and ongoing evaluation, we no longer view decriminalization as a primary mechanism for addressing the systemic challenges associated with substance use.”

The issue of drug decriminalization, and the drug crisis as a whole, is unlikely to be the ballot question for the majority of Canadians, strategists have told iPolitics. 

However, Poilievre’s strategy is expected to resonate with those who feel lost or disappointed by the government’s approaches to the crisis.

Throughout the decriminalization pilot, the Government of Canada has been collecting national data on Canadians’ attitudes towards, and knowledge of, drug decriminalization. 

Compared to the 2023 POR survey, a preference for focusing on health and social services dropped by 5 percentage points, while support for a combined approach of both health and social services and police enforcement increased by 7 percentage points.

Most Canadians believed that decriminalization would make it easier to access health and social services (57 per cent), and half believed decriminalization would reduce stigma towards people who use drugs. However, since 2023, agreement with these statements has slightly dropped. The belief that drug decriminalization would make communities less safe increased by five percentage points from 2023.

For supporters, when the policy was rolled back without an opportunity to try out the full three years, and without proper communication to the public, the decriminalization policy didn’t live up to its potential. 

For critics, the policy was doomed from the start.

Depending on the metric you’re using, the success of the pilot was either an experiment headed on the right track, or a failure. Either way, the facts remain that as overdose deaths decreased and treatment interactions rose, public unrest increased. 

It begs the question of who decriminalization is meant to benefit, how much provinces are willing to risk, and how prepared communities are to face the impacts. And it’s not clear that anyone has the answer yet.