British Columbia’s partial retreat from an experiment to decriminalize drug possession reveals a political shift in Canada over combating the opioid crisis.
People who used or carried small quantities of illegal drugs in plain sight would no longer face arrest in British Columbia, the nexus of Canada’s opioid crisis, officials announced two years ago.
In May, the federal government, which regulates controlled substances, approved a provincial request to reverse the policy and again make public drug use and possession in British Columbia a crime.
As an alternative to harm reduction, some conservative politicians are promoting abstinence-based treatment and addiction rehab, which includes supervised detox and counseling services, as solutions to drug abuse.
A coalition representing 20 civil society groups in British Columbia has asked the Federal Court of Canada to overturn the government’s re-criminalization decision, arguing that it was reached “in bad faith, for reasons of political expedience.”
Days after Mr. Eby announced the plan to roll back decriminalization, about three dozen people gathered at the Downtown Eastside office of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, a nonprofit, to discuss what the change would mean.
Underscoring some of the bolder harm reduction efforts in British Columbia, one group had been supplying cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin to drug users since August 2022, arguing that it protected them from buying tainted and potentially lethal narcotics from dealers.
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People who used or carried small quantities of illegal drugs in plain sight would no longer face arrest in British Columbia, the nexus of Canada’s opioid crisis, officials announced two years ago.
In May, the federal government, which regulates controlled substances, approved a provincial request to reverse the policy and again make public drug use and possession in British Columbia a crime.
As an alternative to harm reduction, some conservative politicians are promoting abstinence-based treatment and addiction rehab, which includes supervised detox and counseling services, as solutions to drug abuse.
A coalition representing 20 civil society groups in British Columbia has asked the Federal Court of Canada to overturn the government’s re-criminalization decision, arguing that it was reached “in bad faith, for reasons of political expedience.”
Days after Mr. Eby announced the plan to roll back decriminalization, about three dozen people gathered at the Downtown Eastside office of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, a nonprofit, to discuss what the change would mean.
Underscoring some of the bolder harm reduction efforts in British Columbia, one group had been supplying cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin to drug users since August 2022, arguing that it protected them from buying tainted and potentially lethal narcotics from dealers.
The original article contains 1,321 words, the summary contains 204 words. Saved 85%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!