Grassroots Liberals debate decriminalizing drug use

Even as Justin Trudeau prepares to deliver on his promise to legalize recreational marijuana, Liberal MPs are pushing the government to go much further: eliminate criminal penalties for simple possession and consumption of all illicit drugs.

The pressure comes in a resolution developed by the national Liberal caucus for consideration at the federal party’s national policy convention in April in Halifax.

It is one of 39 resolutions that the party opened up for online discussion Tuesday.

Others call for the decriminalization of prostitution, establishing a minimum guaranteed income, expanding universal health care to include coverage of prescription drugs and building a fixed-link bridge from the mainland to Newfoundland and Labrador.

On illegal drugs, the caucus resolution urges the government to adopt the model instituted in 2001 in Portugal, where treatment and harm reduction services were expanded and criminal penalties eliminated for low-level possession and consumption of all illicit drugs.

There, a person found in possession of a drug for personal use is no longer arrested but ordered to appear before a “dissuasion commission” which can refer the person to a voluntary treatment program or impose administrative sanctions.

Since Portugal adopted the new approach, the resolution says, “the number of deaths from drug overdose has dropped significantly, adolescent and problematic drug use has decreased, the number of people in drug treatment has increased, the number of people arrested and sent to criminal courts has declined by 60 per cent, and the per capita social cost of drug misuse has decreased by 18 per cent.”

The resolution urges the government to treat drug abuse as a health issue, to expand treatment and harm reduction services and reclassify low-level drug possession and consumption “as administrative violations.”

Online discussion of the resolutions will run until Feb. 14.

Through an online vote, the 39 resolutions will then be whittled down to 30 that will be debated at the convention.

From those 30, Liberals will choose up to 15 priority resolutions that they want included in the party’s election platform in 2019.