Conservatives push federal Liberals on drug decriminalization after B.C. reverses course

The federal Conservatives are pushing the Liberals to stop allowing drug use in public after British Columbia announced it wants to scale back its decriminalization pilot project.

In a policy U-turn, B.C. Premier David Eby announced last week the province was seeking an “urgent” change to a Health Canada exemption so that police can step in if they see drug use in public.

Ottawa allowed B.C. to decriminalize small amounts of hard drugs like heroin and fentanyl starting in January 2023, saying it was a way to destigmatize drug use and address the overdose crisis.

Health workers, police and conservative politicians have since expressed concerns about the effect on public safety of the policy, which has been the target of growing backlash.

The province applied for the exemption in 2021 after declaring drug-related overdose deaths to be a public-health emergency in 2016.

More than 40,000 people have died from opioid-related deaths countrywide since that year, when the Public Health Agency of Canada began collecting data.

The agency says 22 people die every day from toxic drug deaths, and fentanyl is the leading cause.

British Columbia, Ontario and Alberta lead Canada in toxic drug deaths. Health officials and advocates for drug users warn the situation is only getting worsen due to an increasingly toxic supply of drugs.

Since becoming Conservative leader in 2022, Pierre Poilievre has pointed to public drug use in cities like Vancouver as an example of a “dangerous experiment” by Eby’s NDP government and the federal Liberals.

He charges that the current approach is only fuelling addiction and pledges that a future Conservative government would pull out from harm reduction strategies and focus on recovery-oriented approaches instead.

Advocacy groups such as Moms Stop the Harm have asked to meet with Poilievre. They say his proposal ignores evidence that harm-reduction strategies work to save lives.

Moms Stop the Harm co-founder Petra Schulz is set to testify Monday at a parliamentary committee that has been studying the opioid epidemic.

In a statement before her appearance, Schulz said it has been “upsetting and infuriating” to see loved ones’ deaths politicized with “misinformation and outright lies.”

“I urge members of Parliament to stop the angry, harmful and polarizing rhetoric and social-media posts, and to listen to people who use drugs when developing drug policy,” she said.

Poilievre is asking that the House of Commons hold an emergency debate on the issue.

“Until Justin Trudeau’s dangerous drug decriminalization policy is entirely dismantled, it will continue to cause death, chaos and carnage across Canada,” he said in a letter to House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus.

At a press conference in Ottawa for an unrelated event, Ontario Premier Doug Ford repeated his call for Toronto to drop its own application for drug decriminalization.

Ford said he’s spoken to Eby about how things have gone in B.C. and “it’s turned into a nightmare.”

Eby told reporters on Monday that he hopes other jurisdictions learn from his province’s experience and ensure that proper authorities are in place to address public drug use.

“There are important lessons to be learned on where we are to date that don’t need to be repeated in other places,” he said.