Canada: Drug decriminalisation is under attack

We are living in deeply troubling and unsettling times. We are seeing a rise in hatred against people who use drugs. We are seeing morality policing and the spread of misinformation. These are eroding hard-fought gains against proven harm reduction measures. Harm reduction is a philosophy that respects the rights of people who use drugs to make choices for themselves. It gave rise to the slogan, Nothing About Us Without Us!

In 2023, British Columbia (B.C.) rolled out a three-year decriminalization pilot. This followed years of activists calling for change. The pilot decriminalized unregulated drugs, meaning those currently deemed illegal under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. These include opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA. The B.C. pilot does not include benzodiazepines or psilocybin. The city of Toronto applied for a similar pilot, but Health Canada has rejected their request.

The rollout of decriminalization in B.C. has been rife with controversy. It has been widely critiqued by those with harm reduction and drug use expertise. These critiques are that the rollout has lacked political leadership and does not go far enough to make meaningful inroads. As we write this in 2024, the B.C. government has also been chipping away at decriminalization measures. They are not waiting for the evaluation of this three-year pilot project. Additionally, conservative politicians are exploiting our losses from toxic drug deaths and are using the housing crisis to blame decriminalization and attack poor people who use drugs. They are using political cheap shots to garner votes, fundraise, and spread myths and lies.