Federal government grants B.C. request to ban public drug use

It’s a significant departure from the three-year drug decriminalization pilot project which took effect on Jan. 31, 2023.

The pilot specified it was only illegal if over 2.5 grams of several types of drugs were possessed by adults in a select few locations such as schools, licensed child-care facilities, airports and Canadian Coast Guard vessels and helicopters.

Farnworth said the pilot project was never intended to be about public drug use, which he said raised widespread concerns about drug use and public disorder.

“Addiction is a public health matter not a criminal justice one, but that doesn’t mean that anything goes.”

Farnworth said guidance is forthcoming to police departments in the province on how officers are to interpret the new rules.

“Police have made it clear they don’t want to re-criminalize people, they understand that this is a health issue and this is the approach they want to take. What they wanted is the ability, or the tools to be able to move people along.”

The illicit drug possession ban does not apply to private residences, overdose prevention sites or drug checking locations, Farnworth noted.

Minister Farnworth stated the province continues litigating in favour of its Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act, which is embroiled in a BC Supreme Court constitutional challenge.

The policy shifts follows continued complaints from local politicians and members of the public in many B.C. communities regarding public drug use and social disorder.

Recently health and safety concerns from the BC Nurses Union were made regarding increased cases of illegal substance use in hospitals.

Despite the change in course, Mental Health and Additions Minister Jennifer Whiteside said the primary objective is removing barriers for drug users to seek help.

“That at the end of the day is the primary objective and that’s the primary measurement,” she said.

The minister acknowledged the province continues working on clarifying precisely how many bed based and outreach substance use services are available in each health authority.

There are 50 overdose prevention sites operational in the province, with about half of them providing space for drugs consumed via inhalation.

Newly released BC Coroners Service data showed a further 10 deaths in the greater Nanaimo area, and 18 across central Vancouver Island, from illicit toxic drugs in March 2024.

Between Jan. 1 and Mar. 31, 38 people have lost their lives from drug toxicity in Nanaimo, among 61 similar fatalities on the mid-Island.

At current pace, Nanaimo will see roughly 35 per cent more deaths this year than in 2023 when a record number of lives, 111, were lost.

Throughout B.C., 192 people died from illicit toxic drugs in March 2024 alone, among 567 deaths through the first quarter of the year.

– with files from Alex Rawnsley

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ian.holmes@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes

by Ian Holmes

Federal government grants B.C. request to ban public drug use

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