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Category: Decriminalization

  • IGNORING ITS OWN DATA, B.C. REVIVES CRIMINALIZATION

    IGNORING ITS OWN DATA, B.C. REVIVES CRIMINALIZATION

    On January 14, 2026, the province of B.C. announced it would end its limited decriminalization policy and reinstate criminal penalties for personal drug possession.1 The province’s decision not to renew its decriminalization policy appears to have been informed – not by the province’s own data indicators, not by public health and safety experts, not by people most affected, not by health professionals – but by backroom political strategists, whose chief concern is their own hold on power.

    This return to criminalizing and punishing people for their substance use is a step backward. More than that: by so thoroughly and disingenuously fumbling the potential of this initiative, the province of B.C. has done a deep and lasting disservice to people harmed by the unregulated toxic drug crisis worldwide.

    WHAT HAPPENED?

    Yesterday, B.C. Minister of Health Josie Osborne announced that the province would not seek to extend its decriminalization policy when it expires on January 30, 2026.

    The policy, introduced as a three-year pilot project in 2023, had removed criminal penalties for the personal possession of small amounts of some currently-illegal substances. The stated goal of the decriminalization pilot was to “reduce stigma and fear of criminal prosecution that prevents people from reaching out for help, including medical assistance.”2

    This announcement comes despite the province’s own data demonstrating the policy’s early successes.

    POLITICS AS POLICY

    There are limits to the influence that evidence has on government policy choices. This is why we must situate evidence within the social, economic, cultural and political context in which policy is made and implemented. So before we look at the available data around decriminalization and assess the province’s stated reasons for axing it, let’s examine the context for this policy decision.

    People in B.C. are experiencing a housing crisis and cost-of-living crisis that have combined to force record numbers of people to live in public spaces, in tents and in shelters. The unregulated drug supply is unpredictable and frequently contains additives with complex effects on the human body. This is hell for those experiencing it, and can be uncomfortable, upsetting and disruptive for those who witness it. It would be difficult not to witness it: with significant increases in the number of people homeless across B.C. and lack of accessible low-barrier services in most communities, the deprivation and suffering of people harmed by oppressive systems has become highly visible in recent years.

    Not wanting to let the nuances of causation deny a pithy soundbite, it was in this context that opposition politicians took aim at the policy. Decriminalization offered a novel and highly visible scapegoat at which they could direct their constituents’ fears and frustrations. And they did.

    In a media environment that rewards conflict, many news outlets amplified politicians’ fearmongering narratives – sometimes without question, reducing the systemic down to the sensational, blaming decriminalization for the broader issues at play, and obscuring the more complex realities facing British Columbia communities.

    In determining the policy’s future, the province’s own data showing promising impacts fell short when stacked against the firestorm of public opinion and moral panic. The B.C. government was not only unwilling to defend the merits of its own policy, but eventually adopted and amplified the sensational language itself, giving credence to the false narrative of decriminalization as the central cause of community challenges.

    There are lessons to be learned here: not only about the specifics of policy design and implementation, but also about the vulnerability of policy to those peddling fear- and anger-driven narratives.

    B.C.’s RATIONALE FOR ENDING DECRIMINALIZATION

    At the announcement, Minister Osborne stated that the reason the province has chosen to return to criminalizing people who use drugs is that the policy “hasn’t delivered the results that we hoped for.” The province’s own positive and promising data indicators suggest that it was on track to deliver many of the results it sought. B.C.’s reports further cite evidence from other jurisdictions that indicates “it takes years for many health and other outcomes to fully emerge.”3

    In answering media questions – of which there were many, and pointed – the Minister shared that the data did not show the desired increase in self-referrals to care, or use of certain services, though provided details were scant on which services she meant.

    This claim does not appear to be supported by the data the B.C. government reported to Health Canada, which notes that “core service utilization indicators are stable or increasing since decriminalization.”4

    In answering media questions, the Minister also noted that during the three-year exemption, there was not a measurable decrease in stigma, and that the public conversation “has become very challenging.” It is important to note here the province’s role over that time in fueling and entrenching the very stigma decriminalization sought to decrease, by amplifying misleading narratives.5

    Taken together, the data tells a different story than the Minister. Rather than a policy failure, this is a failure of government to address the structural issues driving visible poverty and homelessness, a failure to do the proactive engagement and dialogue to help the public understand a novel policy change in context, a failure to meaningfully respond to politically-motivated moral panic, and ultimately, a failure to support a policy that showed promise in reducing harm and helping people.

    TO THE DATA: WHAT WERE THE RESULTS OF THE DECRIMINALIZATION PILOT?

    By the B.C. government’s own measures, decriminalization was achieving its policy goals.6 For example, in a key element of decriminalization, offences and seizures decreased. This is important because evidence shows that fear of criminal sanction can prevent people from accessing services, and involvement with the criminal legal system can drive harms like losing housing or employment, and increasing risk of overdose.7

    Another desired outcome of the project was to increase awareness of and comfort accessing health and social services, and increased connections to those services. Data in B.C.’s reporting to Health Canada appears to show positive results here as well: “data…suggests that core service utilization indicators are stable or increasing since decriminalization.”

    In addition to B.C.’s measured indicators on accessing services, a recent peer-reviewed study in Vancouver found that young people reported being less likely to be deterred from accessing harm reduction services because of fear of police.8

    Further data showed ambulance calls decreased. At least initially, visits to Overdose Prevention Services were up. There was no observed increase in Substance Use Disorder diagnoses, including in youth.9

    It is important to note that B.C.’s decriminalization model had significant flaws in its design and implementation, several of which were identified prior to launch by People Who Use Drugs, community groups, and academics.10 Contextually, during the policy’s implementation, the province saw significant increases in the number of people experiencing homelessness and poverty. And, despite these flaws and contextual realities, and by the province’s own measures, decriminalization in B.C. showed notable successes and promise.

    DEFLECTION

    As with all sleight of hand tricks, the Health Minister made an effort to refocus attention away from the shaky policy logic of the announcement. Here we saw once again, government turn to promoting access to treatment – specifically the expansion of Access Central, a phone line that exists to connect people with health services and supports – as B.C.’s new policy direction. We can assume, however, that as informed, diligent public servants, the Minister, her staff, and the policy analysts behind the scenes know: treatment alone is an individual response to a systemic issue; it is insufficient and inappropriate to tout it as a cure-all response to the unregulated toxic drug crisis. Without taking anything away from what may be a worthwhile service, it is misleading to speak of Access Central, or any treatment-focused intervention, as an appropriate policy substitution for decriminalization. Instead, in this context, it reads more like narrative management, a distraction from the province’s decision to return to criminalization and its attendant harms.

    The expansion announcement reframes the issue as an individual problem with individual solutions. It further implies that help exists at sufficient scale when it does not, and – as outlined in CDPC’s Addiction Treatment position statement –much of the help that does exist is unregulated, inaccessible, and poor quality.11

    WHAT WE DO KNOW (AND HAVE THE EVIDENCE TO BACK UP)

    The main driver of death and harm today remains the unregulated, toxic drug supply.12 13Criminalization makes the unregulated supply more dangerous. Despite yesterday’s announcement, the broad base of evidence that supports decriminalization has not changed. Decades of data show that policing, arresting, charging, and jailing people for their substance use increases harm, while doing nothing to reduce drug use or increase safety. That is why we still need decriminalization.

    Decriminalization is one necessary piece of a much larger puzzle that includes housing, health care, voluntary treatment, and a regulated supply. It could never address housing shortages, cost-of-living pressures, and toxic drugs. What it could and did do, by the province’s own metrics, is reduce some of the harm connected to the criminal legal system, reduce barriers that stop people from connecting to supports and services, and reduce the fear that drives people to hide their substance use.

    This decision reflects politics, not evidence. The facts haven’t changed. The need for decriminalization hasn’t either.

    1. Ministry of Health. (2026, January 14). Minister’s statement on status of the decriminalization pilot program [Press release]. Government of British Columbia. https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2026HLTH0003-000031 ↩︎
    2. Government of British Columbia. (2025, September 29). Decriminalizing people who use drugs in B.C. Government of British Columbia. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/overdose/decriminalization (Last updated September 29, 2025) ↩︎
    3. British Columbia Ministry of Health. (2025, August). Decriminalization: Data report to Health Canada (February 2023–April 2025). Government of British Columbia. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/overdose-awareness/data_report_to_health_canada_august_2025.pdf ↩︎
    4. British Columbia Ministry of Health. (2025, August). Decriminalization: Data report to Health Canada (February 2023–April 2025). Government of British Columbia. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/overdose-awareness/data_report_to_health_canada_august_2025.pdf ↩︎
    5. For insight on PWUD experiences of stigma in year one of the decriminalization policy, see: Ali, F., Russell, C., Torres-Salbach, S., Lo, M., Bonn, M., Bardwell, G., Budau, J., Hyshka, E., & Rehm, J. (2025). Experiences of stigmatization among people who use drugs in the initial year of British Columbia’s drug decriminalization policy: A qualitative study. International Journal of Drug Policy, 139, 104791. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2025.104791
      https://www.sciencedirect.com/
      science/article/pii/S0955395925000908 ↩︎
    6. British Columbia Ministry of Health. (2025, August). Decriminalization: Data report to Health Canada (February 2023–April 2025). Government of British Columbia. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/overdose-awareness/data_report_to_health_canada_august_2025.pdf ↩︎
    7. Office of the Provincial Health Officer. (2019). Stopping the harm: Decriminalization of people who use drugs in British Columbia (PHO Special Report). Province of British Columbia. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/health/about-bc-s-health-care-system/office-of-the-provincial-health-officer/reports-publications/special-reports/stopping-the-harm-report.pdf ↩︎
    8. McAdam, E., Milloy, M.-J., Sayre, E. C., Verdicchio, C., Sedgemore, K., May, H., Pranteau, S., Corriveau, D., Friesen, D., Fleury, M., Fast, D., & DeBeck, K. (2025). Policing and access to harm reduction services among young people who use drugs and young Indigenous people who use drugs before and after the pilot implementation of decriminalization of personal possession. International Journal of Drug Policy, 146, 105068. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2025.105068 ↩︎
    9. See Appendix C: Additional Contextual Indicators of British Columbia Ministry of Health. (2025, August). Decriminalization: Data report to Health Canada, February 2023 – April 2025 (Appendix C: Additional Contextual Indicators). Government of British Columbia. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/overdose-awareness/data_report_to_health_canada_august_2025.pdf ↩︎
    10. Canadian Drug Policy Coalition. (2022, June 1). “We need decriminalization for all:” Drug policy & human rights organizations say model in British Columbia leaves many behind. Canadian Drug Policy Coalition. https://drugpolicy.ca/we-need-decriminalization-for-all-drug-policy-human-rights-organizations-say-model-in-british-columbia-leaves-many-behind/ ↩︎
    11. Canadian Drug Policy Coalition. (2025, December 30). Addiction treatment in context: Principles for a system of just, accessible, and voluntary care (Position Statement). https://drugpolicy.ca/our-work/addiction-treatment-position-statement/ ↩︎
    12. Health Canada Expert Task Force on Substance Use. (2021). Report 2: Recommendations on the federal government’s drug policy as articulated in a draft Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy (CDSS). Retrieved from Health Canada https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/corporate/about-health-canada/public-engagement/external-advisory-bodies/expert-task-force-substance-use/reports/report-2-2021.html ↩︎
    13. Gonzalez-Nieto, P., Wallace, B., Kielty, C., Gruntman, K., Robinson, D., Substance Staff, Arredondo Sanchez Lira, J., Gill, C., & Hore, D. (2025). Not just fentanyl: Understanding the complexities of the unregulated opioid supply through results from a drug checking service in British Columbia, Canada. International Journal of Drug Policy, 138, Article 104751. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2025.104751 ↩︎

  • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Province repeals public use law previously blocked by B.C. Supreme Court for irreparable harm  

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Province repeals public use law previously blocked by B.C. Supreme Court for irreparable harm  

    Joint Statement from the Harm Reduction Nurses Association, the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition and Pivot Legal Society 

    ​​xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, sḵwx̱wú7mesh & səlilwətaɬ lands Vancouver, BC |​ December 20, 2024 – Yesterday the B.C. provincial government repealed Bill 34: the Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act. This represents a small but hard-fought victory against politically-driven laws and policies that inflict harm upon those made most vulnerable by oppressive systems. 

    The Act was initially passed last November, but a temporary B.C. Supreme Court injunction filed by the Harm Reduction Nurses Association and supported by the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition and Pivot Legal Society prevented it from coming into force until the court could assess whether it violated Charter rights. Rather than proceed through this process, the province has repealed the legislation.  

    It is important to recognize the harms the Act would have codified into law, and the harm prevented by its repeal. In repealing this legislation, the province has tacitly admitted that the Act would not have withstood the court’s scrutiny of its harmful consequences. We can count this as a victory. But ultimately, until evidence and ethics guide public policy in B.C., we fear we will be forced to continue these fights.       

    In its injunction ruling, the court agreed that in severely restricting public drug consumption, the Act would cause irreparable harm to people at risk of injury and death amid a public health crisis. Chief Justice Hinkson said, “Given the evidence before me, I find that there is a high degree of probability that at least some of the harm set out by the plaintiff will in fact occur. Centrally, but not exclusively, the Act will promote more lone drug use, which carries incumbent risks to [people who use drugs] and also the plaintiff’s members.”  

    This piece of legislation, which was not time-limited to the duration of B.C.’s decriminalization pilot, would also have enabled an increase in policing scope to specifically target unhoused people. The law would have had outsized impacts on Indigenous and racialized people, recreating and intensifying the existing harms of colonization and systemic racism. There was widespread opposition to the Act, including from the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, the Surrey Union of Drug Users, the BC Association of Social Workers and CMHA BC. 

    Though the BC government has repealed Bill 34 in light of the court injunction and significant community backlash, some of the Act’s insidious elements exist within the province’s Apr. 2024 amendment to the decriminalization pilot. This politically-driven amendment circumvented the injunction against the Act and codified some of its most harmful facets through other means. We stand by our colleagues who have filed a judicial review of this egregious sidestepping of justice.  

    While the end of this harmful legislation represents a win for human rights, we continue to exist within a prolonged public health emergency. Criminalizing drug use is a far downstream intervention that lacks evidentiary support. More than a century of criminalization has demonstrated that enforcement has not decreased drug availability or use, is an ineffective use of public funds, and is clearly linked to an increased risk of overdose and cycles of homelessness. Criminalization drives further toxicity and unpredictability in the unregulated drug supply and signals to a significant portion of B.C.’s population that their deaths are acceptable. Once again, Chief Justice Hinkson reminds us, “I have already set out that British Columbia is in a Public Health Emergency. As part of these circumstances, the plaintiff argued, and I accept, that the unregulated nature of the illegal drug supply is the predominant cause of increasing death rates in British Columbia.” 

    We know the drivers of more than five preventable deaths per day in B.C.: stigma, isolation, and a poisoned drug supply. All three are made worse by criminalization. We implore the B.C. provincial government to stop playing politics in a public health emergency; we want to work together to end this crisis, with a shared understanding that every single death by the unregulated drug supply is preventable. 

    -30- 

    Links and Resources:  

    • Bill 34 – Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act 
    • December 29, 2023 B.C. Supreme Court Ruling on Injunction Application  
    • April 26, 2024 HRNA Press Release in response to B.C.’s decriminalization pilot amendment request 

    To arrange interviews, please contact Jessica Hannon, Canadian Drug Policy Coalition [email protected]

  • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Province moves to circumvent B.C. Supreme Court, harm reduction nurses slam “recipe for preventable death”

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Province moves to circumvent B.C. Supreme Court, harm reduction nurses slam “recipe for preventable death”

    Victoria, B.C. | April 26, 2024 — The Harm Reduction Nurses Association is profoundly frustrated and disappointed to hear the British Columbia provincial government’s announcement that they have sought permission from the Federal government to recriminalize all people who are at risk of dying from the unregulated drug crisis who lack access to housing or 24/7 safer use spaces in their communities.

    “The B.C. government’s actions today will put people who use drugs and people who rely on public space at further risk of harm and death,” says Corey Ranger of the Harm Reduction Nurses Association. “We all want and deserve communities where all people, whether they use drugs or not, can access safety and well-being. By imposing these restrictions on the decriminalization pilot without offering real solutions like expanding overdose prevention services and access to housing, the province has declared some lives unworthy of saving.” 

    The BC Supreme Court injunction to prevent Bill 34, the Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act, from coming into force found that the province’s proposed restrictions on decriminalization would lead to irreparable harm. The Harm Reduction Nurses Association has previously reached out to the Province with an offer to collaborate to address concerns without causing further harm, through a range of legal and policy changes that would better protect the lives of people currently at risk of overdose and increase public safety. 

    “Rather than focus on solutions appropriate to the eight-year emergency we are in and thousands of lives lost, the Province has chosen to do an end-run around that court decision,” says DJ Larkin, co-counsel for HRNA and executive director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition. 

    “This pushes people who use drugs out of sight, to covert and isolated use. Combined with a toxic and unpredictable drug supply, that is a recipe for preventable drug poisoning death. We don’t want people to die hidden in alleyways,” says Ranger. “We don’t want any more families to have to grieve their loved ones. We want effective solutions. And we know that criminalization is no solution. This is a step back.” 

    HRNA members say B.C.’s actions directing healthcare workers in hospitals to follow policies that “prohibit drug possession, use and purchasing of illicit drugs,” will further impede nurses’ ability to ethically provide compassionate and life-saving care to people who use drugs. 

    “Principles of equity, autonomy and justice are embedded within nursing regulatory professional practice requirements,” says Michelle Danda of HRNA. “These policy directives will further marginalize and stigmatize people who use drugs and create division between nurses and patients as opposed to a community to support care. We need nurses to unite around compassionate, evidence-informed care.” 

    “To keep everyone safer – including nurses and all healthcare workers – we need widespread access to safer use spaces, including inhalation services,” says Ranger. “We can achieve safety without resorting to punitive measures.”

    HRNA has outlined a number of actions the Province could take that would help, not harm, including: 

    • Rapid scaling-up of supervised consumption sites wherever they are needed 
    • Exploring options to responsibly regulate the drug supply for safety 
    • Scaling up access to regulated, evidence-based voluntary non-profit treatment 
    • Investing heavily in affordable housing and poverty reduction 

    More than a century of prohibition has demonstrated that enforcement has not decreased drug availability or use, is extremely expensive, and is clearly linked to an increased risk of overdose and cycles of homelessness. 

    “The decriminalization pilot has its drawbacks, and ultimately does not address the unregulated toxic drug supply that continues to drive this crisis,” says Larkin. “Even so, it is an important part of a broader shift. To be effective in reducing harm and supporting healthy communities, it must be accompanied by additional actions. Blaming the decriminalization pilot for systemic issues of rising homelessness and visible poverty scapegoats those already suffering. When we see public drug use, it is because people do not have housing, services or safe places to go – and because people want to stay alive, not die alone and out of sight.”

    Today’s announcement is a direct circumvention of the Bill 34 injunction and poses the very same risk for irreparable harm. 

    -30- 

    Links and Resources: 

    • B.C. Supreme Court Ruling on Injunction Application 
    • Bill 34 – Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act
    • April 16, 2024 HRNA Press Release
    • December 30, 2023 HRNA Press Release 

    Media Contact:

    [email protected]

  • B.C.’s Decriminalization Pilot and VPD Drug Seizures

    B.C.’s Decriminalization Pilot and VPD Drug Seizures

    Today, the Vancouver Police Department reported a decrease in seizures related to simple drug possession since British Columbia’s decriminalization pilot launched in early 2023. While this news is positive, it doesn’t give us the full picture of how drug-related issues are being handled in the criminal-legal system. We need more openness and clarity. To truly reduce harm through decriminalization, we must minimize police involvement and interactions overall. Matters concerning substance use – including referrals and outreach – should be dealt with through health and social systems, not police. 

    Police Interactions Can Drive Harm

    It is important to note that when the VPD reports they made no seizures for simple possession, it does not mean there were no police interactions with individuals who use drugs. We know that interactions with police and criminal justice systems often drive harm for people who use drugs. For example, we do not have enough information about whether police might categorize seizures as “possession for the purposes of trafficking” rather than simple possession. We also lack data on informal interactions with the police that do not result in seizures, but still have similar negative impacts. These unrecorded interactions can cause the same harms as criminalization, including increasing the risk of death from unregulated drugs due to fear of police intervention and drug confiscation. 

    BC Drug Decriminalization Threshold Too Low

    The combined 2.5 gram threshold for decriminalization is too low to effectively decriminalize people who use drugs in B.C.  It does not reflect the evidence regarding the quantities people use or the behaviours of a variety of groups, including people living in rural or remote communities and those purchasing from a safer, more trusted seller. As a result, the 2.5 gram threshold is not a useful measure to determine what is simple possession and what is possession for the purposes of trafficking. More than 30 B.C. organizations have endorsed a recommendation to either remove threshold amounts in their entirety, or immediately scale up the decriminalized personal possession threshold to 28 grams (1 oz) for all illicit drugs, including those currently excluded such as ketamine and benzodiazepines. 

    We Need Drug Policies That Will Keep Us Safe

    There are clear links between criminalizing drug use and causing harm. Enforcement has not reduced drug availability or use. It also comes at a high financial cost, while contributing to an increased risk of overdose and cycles of homelessness. Decriminalization, on the other hand, is associated with fewer people being incarcerated or involved with the criminal-legal system, reduced stigma and better access to services – all of which help prevent harm and overdoses. That is why decriminalization is a crucial part of a larger shift in drug laws and policies to make our communities safer for everyone. This shift must also prioritize equitable access to overdose prevention sites, healthcare, responsibly regulated substances, affordable housing, sufficient income, and evidence-based, voluntary, non-profit treatment. 

  • Canadian Drug Policy Coalition/ Doalition canadienne des politiques sur les drogues

    One year of decriminalization in BC: What’s really going on? 

    A misinformation campaign around public use legislation distracts from real solutions 

    January 31, 2024 | One year ago today, British Columbia decriminalized personal possession of small amounts of some drugs in limited locations in a three-year pilot project. Since then, an organized political campaign has spent time and money to cloud public perception and discredit evidence-based efforts. Let’s cut through the rhetoric and talk about what is and isn’t working with decriminalization, and what a better way forward could be.  

    It’s understandable people are concerned, as drug poisoning deaths reach their highest-ever levels: with 2511 deaths last year alone, communities across B.C. feel the impact of this crisis. Under decriminalization, adults carrying up to 2.5 grams of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA in specific places will not be subject to criminal charges: police cannot seize their drugs, arrest or charge them for simple possession. Instead, they are directed to services. The pilot excludes schools, childcare facilities, playgrounds, splash pads and skate parks, among other locations. Decriminalization has support amongst public health and policy experts, including B.C.’s provincial health officer and chief coroner.  

    Decriminalization reduces incarceration, police involvement, stigma, and disconnection from services – all of which drive harm and overdose. In that regard, it is working. From February to June 2023, B.C. possession offences fell 76 per cent, diverting hundreds of people from the criminal justice system. But decriminalization is just one tool, and the driving forces behind overdose, homelessness and public use remain unaddressed. Critically, decriminalization does not address the toxicity of the unregulated drug market repeatedly recommended by experts, including the BC Coroners Service Death Review Panel. Waits for detox remain weeks-long and gold standard substitution options remain widely inaccessible. To top it off, actors within the unregulated private treatment industry continue to evade accountability for their response to allegations of misconduct, deaths and political scandal.  

    If you think you are seeing more unhoused people than ever, you’re right – but not because of decriminalization. While drug use rates remain stable, homelessness has risen considerably: up 32 per cent across 11 Lower Mainland communities and 65 per cent in Surrey. Some critics wrongly attribute these worsening social issues to decriminalization. Content creators, treatment industry lobbyists and municipal mayors alike have blamed the policy for alleged spikes in public drug use, fuel for a politicized assault.

    But decriminalization cannot build homes; open supervised consumption sites; undo decades of housing divestment; reverse generational traumas of colonization; create responsive health care systems; or influence the unregulated drug market. If the government was serious about tackling the drug poisoning crisis and finding solutions to public drug use, there are clear places to start. Scaling up permanent welfare-rate housing and renewing modular housing leases would reduce visible poverty. Opening overdose prevention services in every community, per the still-unfulfilled 2016 Ministerial Order, would create safer indoor spaces for use while facilitating access to healthcare and treatment, reducing emergency costs, and improving neighbourhood cleanliness. Most importantly, B.C. could prevent deaths by responsibly regulating the drug supply to standardize content, access and use, all while increasing tax revenue and diverting hundreds of millions of dollars of profit from organized crime. 

    Although evidence-based solutions exist, the government is choosing reactionary politics to push the poorest people in society out of voters’ line of vision. Despite existing limits on decriminalization, the Province introduced Bill 34, which encourages racist and anti-poor stereotyping, ordering police to remove people from public spaces based on suspected rather than observed drug use. Pushing unhoused people into isolation will increase overdose deaths and countless other social harms. So if you are upset about rising poverty and death despite decriminalization, please redirect your anger toward the politicians who care more about getting re-elected than building healthy, happy communities.

    Authors: Anmol Swaich, SUDU (Surrey Union of Drug Users) Sarah Lovegrove, the EIDGE (Eastside Illicit Drinkers Group for Education) and Aaron Bailey

    Anmol Swaich is a MSc student and Research Assistant in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and a Community Organizer with Surrey Union of Drug Users. 

    Sarah Lovegrove is a registered nurse and member of the Harm Reduction Nurses Association. 

    Aaron Bailey holds a Master of Science in Health Promotion from Queen’s University, serves as Program Coordinator at the Eastside Illicit Drinkers Group for Education (EIDGE) and supports operations of the VANDU Overdose Prevention Site.

  • When law and policy is unjust, communities have no choice but to act.

    When law and policy is unjust, communities have no choice but to act.

    The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) arrest of Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) founders on October 25th, 2023 is an act of political and moral cowardice.  

    In the context of unrelenting loss driven by the unregulated drug market, DULF has taken courageous and ethical action to supply safety-tested substances to people who use drugs at great personal risk of arrest under Canada’s controlled substances laws.  

    DULF’s work saves lives. Through their small, community-led model of safe supply, they have demonstrated how access to safety-tested drugs of known potency and contents can reduce overdose, keep people alive, reduce hospitalizations and stabilize lives. DULF’s work has support from leading researchers, physicians and health care providers, public health officials, and community groups. 

    DULF has been transparent and communicative about their actions. They have made every effort to proceed legally, including by applying for an exemption from Health Canada which was denied last year. In the midst of the ongoing unregulated drug crisis, DULF made the ethical choice to proceed without formal approval.  

    The VPD chose to enforce these unjust laws after more than a year of DULF’s compassion club operating in plain sight. There is no conceivable possibility that the VPD, the City of Vancouver, the Province of BC or any other public or private actor with any familiarity with the drug policy landscape in Canada has been unaware of DULF’s actions since their first action. Police have discretion as to when, where and how to enforce the law — they chose the path of harm, and they did not have to.  

    When law and policy is unjust, communities have no choice but to act. The VPD themselves agree that their actions could “absolutely” result in drug users who rely on the compassion club’s services consuming more dangerous substances. Premier David Eby said earlier this week that while DULF is doing life-saving work, the government cannot tolerate illegal activity. The BC government and the VPD are using the law as a shield to justify what even the VPD admit is a dangerous and harmful act.  

    People who use drugs have long known they must take care of each other in the face of government violence and neglect. Sterile needle distribution was once illegal; Insite, Canada’s first legal safe injection site, overcame multiple legal challenges to exist. History has demonstrated that drug law and policy change lag far behind need, and that governments will eventually adopt the lifesaving responses that communities of drug users initiate. We believe this pattern will be replicated, and that history will once again vindicate DULF’s actions.  

    Until then, we unequivocally assert our support for DULF founders and their life-saving work. Inspired by them, we will continue to advocate for urgent and vital reforms to drug law and policy with every tool we have.

  • Canadian Drug Policy Coalition/ Doalition canadienne des politiques sur les drogues

    Leading human rights and public health organizations release national drug decriminalization platform for Canada

    Toronto, ON—In the wake of almost 23,000 drug poisoning deaths since 2016, twenty-one civil society organizations across the country, including groups of people who use drugs, families affected by drug use, drug policy and human rights organizations, frontline service providers, and researchers, have collaborated to release Canada’s first civil society-led policy framework for drug decriminalization in Canada.

    Decriminalization Done Right: A Rights-Based Path for Drug Policy seeks to end the harmful and fatal criminalization of people who use drugs—which has fuelled unprecedented overdose deaths—and protect the health and human rights of all people in Canada.

    “The Canadian Association of People Who Use Drugs welcomes this timely national call to action on drug decriminalization. This rights-based path for drug policy reflects the input of many people who use drugs and presents a decriminalization model that serves as an important starting point for policymakers to decriminalize and regulate presently illegal drugs,” said Natasha Touesnard, Executive Director of the Canadian Association of People Who Use Drugs.

    “Only with comprehensive drug decriminalization, allowing the provision of an effective and accessible safe supply of presently illegal drugs, will the devastating ongoing overdose epidemic stop.”

    ~ Natasha Touesnard, Canadian Association of People Who Use Drugs

    This comprehensive platform, endorsed by more than 100 organizations calls for the following:

    — Full decriminalization of all drug possession for personal use—as well as sharing or selling of drugs for subsistence, to support personal drug use costs, or to provide a safe supply—by doing the following:

    • Repeal section 4 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) and section 8 of the Cannabis Act
    • Amend section 5 of the CDSA, which criminalizes trafficking-related offences
    • Remove all sanctions and interventions linked to simple drug possession or necessity trafficking
    • Automatically expunge past convictions for simple drug possession and past convictions for breaches of police undertakings, bail, probation, or parole conditions associated with charges for these acts
    • Set strict rules around when police can stop, search, and investigate a person for drug possession
    • Remove police and law enforcement as “gatekeepers” between people who use drugs and health and social services, and replace them with organizations led by people who use(d) drugs or trained frontline workers

    — Redistribution of resources from enforcement and policing to non-coercive, voluntary policies, programs, and services that protect and promote people’s health and human rights, including health, education, housing, and social services that support people who use drugs.

    “The war on drugs has been a colossal failure. Under a regime of criminalization, people who use drugs are vilified, subject to routine human rights abuses, and denied access to life-saving healthcare, leading to preventable infection and death,” said Sandra Ka Hon Chu, Co-Executive Director of the HIV Legal Network. “To undo those harms, decriminalization must be done right. Reflecting community voices, including those most directly affected by drug prohibition, this platform presents a vision for governments to remove the stifling threat of criminalization from the lives of people who use drugs.”

    More than a century of drug prohibition aimed at deterring drug use has failed, and there is no greater evidence of this failure than the thousands of deaths due to drug poisonings across Canada and an overdose crisis that continues unabated. Prohibition is rooted in, and has reinforced, racism, sexism, and colonialism and has disproportionately affected Black and Indigenous people who are at much higher risk of arrest and severe punishment for drug offences.

    “Cops have been enforcing the drug war for over a century. Carding, harassing, arresting, beating and incarcerating drug users—especially if we’re Black or Indigenous. It’s high time cops stand down and get out of our lives. They have caused so much harm,” said Garth Mullins, member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

    “No more cops, courts and jails for drug users. No more para-military police occupation of marginalized communities. That’s what real decriminalization means.”

    ~ Garth Mullins, Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users

    The harms of criminalization follow people for the rest of their lives: criminal records limit employment and housing opportunities, affect child custody, and restrict travel, among other repercussions. Additionally, enforcing drug offences consumes billions of dollars annually.[1] “We continue to resource policing and punishment while defunding services in our communities that actually address the roots of harm and violence. Our prisons are full of people who need help, not a record,” said educator and activist El Jones.

    “The stigma of drug use ruins lives. It is long past time to stop funding a war on drugs, and to invest in real public safety: housing, mental health, childcare, and living in a society free of oppression for all people, including those who use drugs.”

    ~ El Jones, author and activist
    (Not all logos of contributors represented)
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    Endorsers List

    — 30 —

    Media Contact

    CDPC Communications
    [email protected]

    Additional Quotes

    “The sharing of different experiences and expertise across this country has resulted in a common vision of what drug policy should be in Canada. By opting for this civil society platform, the federal government has the power to reduce the harms associated with the criminalization of people who use drugs. We all have the right to respect, safety, access to healthcare and social services—and to a better life, free from judgment and discrimination.” (Sandhia Vadlamudy; Executive Director, Association des intervenants en dépendance du Québec (AIDQ))

    “The war on drugs has not only fed policing and prisons in this country, it has had devastating effects on our families. Black and Indigenous mothers in particular have seen their children taken into the child welfare system, causing generational trauma. Schools, hospitals, and even our homes have become sites of violent policing which has done nothing to address trauma, to heal, or to help people who want treatment for addictions. (El Jones; Educator, Journalist, Activist)

    “Decriminalization Done Right proposes a policy shift that is long overdue and is a first step to change a historically cruel and misguided application of the criminal law that has devastated the lives of countless Canadians. If adopted by Canada, it would be an important step towards a compassionate, human rights-based approach based on evidence that builds stronger communities for everyone.”(Donald MacPherson; Executive Director, Canadian Drug Policy Coalition)

    “Punishing people who use drugs is unfounded drug policy and creates stigma that is much more detrimental than drugs themselves.” (Jean-Sebastien Fallu; Professor, University of Montreal)

    “Led by respected and internationally recognized national organizations, this platform on drug decriminalization is now the centerpiece of actions that our governments must take. The principles it defends and the values it advocates represent civil society’s contributions to essential reforms that are faithful to human rights and social inclusion.” (Louis Letellier de St-Just; lawyer (health law), Board Chair and Co-Founder CACTUS Montréal)

    “Punitive drug policies rooted in racism and colonialism have failed and caused catastrophic harm. Youth are particularly stigmatized and targeted because they are young. As decriminalization now seems closer to reality than ever before, it’s crucial that we ensure voices of young people who use drugs are central to these discussions.” (Kira London-Nadeau; Chair, Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy)

    “Neither sick nor guilty—people who use drugs are not criminals, and the legislation must reflect this reality.” (Chantal Montmorency; Executive Director, Association québécoise pour la promotion de la santé des personnes utilisatrices de drogues)

    Contributors

    1. Association des intervenants en dépendance du Québec (AIDQ)
    2. Association québécoise pour la promotion de la santé des personnes utilisatrices de drogues (AQPSUD)
    3. BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres
    4. BC Centre on Substance Use
    5. British Columbia Civil Liberties Association
    6. CACTUS Montreal
    7. Canadian Association of People Who Use Drugs
    8. Canadian Drug Policy Coalition
    9. Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy
    10. Cannabis Amnesty
    11. Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation
    12. Community-Based Research Centre
    13. Drug User Liberation Front
    14. Harm Reduction Nurses Association
    15. HIV Legal Network
    16. MAPS Canada
    17. Moms Stop the Harm
    18. Pivot Legal Society
    19. South Riverdale Community Health Centre
    20. Thunderbird Partnership Foundation
    21. Toronto Overdose Prevention Society

    [1] https://csuch.ca/explore-the-data/

  • Decriminalization Done Right: A Rights-Based Path for Drug Policy

    Decriminalization Done Right: A Rights-Based Path for Drug Policy

    Decriminalization platform canada decriminalization platform canada

    Punitive drug laws and policies aimed at ending illegal drug use have failed; and worse, they have done catastrophic harm to communities and society. These laws have fuelled stigma; epidemics of preventable illness and death; poverty; homelessness; and widespread, systematic, and egregious violations of human rights. Recognizing the many lives that have been lost and ruined to the state-sanctioned “war on drugs,” we must act to end the harm. Decriminalizing personal drug possession and necessity trafficking are fundamental, necessary steps towards a more rational and just drug policy grounded in evidence and human rights. It is a change that is long overdue. [Read more…]

    Download Platform
    Endorsers List
  • Decriminalization Done Right: A Human Rights and Public Health Vision for Drug Policy Reform

    Decriminalization Done Right: A Human Rights and Public Health Vision for Drug Policy Reform

    Decriminalization Done Right Decriminalization Done Right

    SIGN ON LETTER: As organizations and individuals committed to the liberation of people who use drugs, and progressive, rights-based drug policy reforms including decriminalization, we, the undersigned, call on the City of Vancouver to address three major concerns regarding its current application to the federal Health Minister to decriminalize simple drug possession locally. We also call on Health Canada and the federal Health Minister, Patty Hajdu, to refrain from imposing unnecessary and unjustified restrictions on any exemption issued to enable decriminalization in Vancouver or other municipalities or provinces that may follow suit, and we call on the Vancouver Police Department to stand down, vacate the process of decriminalization, and sign off on community-established thresholds [Read more]

    #DecrimDoneRight involves co-development with people who use drugs.

    Contact us to add your organization’s name to the letter

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    Signed,

    AIDS Network Kootenay Outeach and Support Society
    Amnesty International Canada
    Association des intervenants en dépendance du Québec (AIDQ)
    AVI Health and Community Services
    BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres
    BC Civil Liberties Association
    Brockville’s Overdose Outreach Team
    Canadian Association of People Who Use Drugs (CAPUD)
    Canadian Drug Policy Coalition
    Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (National)
    Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy Vancouver
    Canadian Psychedelic Association
    Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation
    Community-Based Research Centre
    Each+Every
    East Kootenay Network of People who Use Drugs
    Harm Reduction Nurses Association
    HIV Legal Network
    Moms Stop the Harm
    Pivot Legal Society
    South Riverdale Community Health Centre (Toronto)
    Thunderbird Partnership Foundation