British Columbia is expected to become the first province to decriminalize the possession of small quantities of illicit drugs – but drug users, defenders and the province’s chief coroner warn that the 2.5-gram threshold set by the federal government ignores the harsh realities of how people buy and use drugs in the countryside.
Canadians aged 18 and over will be able to have up to a cumulative 2.5 grams of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA in British Columbia as of January 31, 2023.
The province applied for exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act in November 2021 with a threshold of 4.5 grams. The federal government has lowered the threshold to 2.5 grams, citing feedback from law enforcement officials across British Columbia
Kevin Jake, vice president of the Vancouver Drug Network (VANDU) and a 40-year-old drug user, said many well-established drug users were addicted, well over 2.5 grams a day, and that policy, while important, ” sets them up for failure. “
“At 4.5 grams, I thought it was low. Two points and five grams, I think that’s ridiculous, “he said.
“I need this to wake up in the morning. For people with higher tolerances, this is not helpful at all,” he said.
Yake said many consumers buy wholesale or with a partner to save money and minimize the number of transactions that put them at risk.
“Now it’s a new ball game – make sure I have enough for the day because I have to score again.”
“half measure”
Ryan McNeill, director of harm reduction research at the Yale Addiction Medicine Program and a related scientist at the BC Center for Substance Use, said the threshold did not take into account much of the drug use dynamics specific to the Eastside Vancouver Center. where the highly toxic drug fentanyl causes people to use increasing amounts.
“One of the dynamics of fentanyl is that it is a shorter-acting opioid than heroin, so over time we see people using it in greater quantities than they would have done before,” he said.
“There are some people who could potentially remove and tear the police out of their lives, and that’s important – but it will leave so many people behind. In that regard, it’s really a half-measure policy.”
Carolyn Bennett, the federal minister for mental health and addictions, said the government’s decision to lower the possession threshold from 4.5 to 2.5 grams was based on information from law enforcement agencies across the country.
She said the threshold was a “starting point” that could be adjusted as needed.
Bennett said law enforcement data revealed that 85% of drugs seized were for quantities of less than two grams, although it was not specified for which time frame and region these data were specific.
Carolyn Bennett, Federal Minister for Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, far left, listens to British Columbia Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry speak at a press conference after BC received an exemption from decriminalizing possession. use some illegal personal medications on Tuesday. (Daryl Dyke / Canadian Press)
The British Columbia Police Chiefs Association said the average amount of hard drugs seized in the departments ranged from an average of 1.9 grams for the Vancouver and Abbotsford police departments, to 1.6 grams for the Victoria police department and 1.3 grams for the Northern District RCMP.
Some measurements take into account the weight of the drug package, while others do not.
Details of police enforcement are not known
Vancouver police said in a statement that they supported the measures to reduce the damage and were waiting for the province and the police to guide them on how the employees would impose the threshold.
McNeill said it was crucial to know how much discretion law enforcement would have and what tools they would use to determine how the threshold is applied.
“Two points and five grams are difficult to see – how will the police be equipped to monitor this in the field? Does this mean that this can become a mechanism through which anything above this threshold is understood as potential possession with the intention of selling or marking someone as a potential drug dealer? “He said.
“We need to raise questions about how this will actually be implemented in real conditions and whether it can perpetuate the inequalities we see in the police and the potential imprisonment of particularly indigenous people, but also of other people who are racial.”
Jake, who said VANDU would continue to advocate for a higher legal threshold, said he believed the federal government should have consulted drug users and health workers, not law enforcement across the country.
“I just see more money for the police and more headaches and obstacles for the consumer,” he said.
“This is not a cure, legalizing a few drugs. It has to be more than that, the availability of a safe supply that is tested every day before going out to the consumer, which ensures that this person does not die from a heavy, heavy dose of fentanyl, which is a poison. “
More than 9,400 people in British Columbia have died from toxic drug overdoses since the province declared a public health emergency in 2016, averaging six a day.
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