B.C.'S DISASTROUS DRUG DECRIMINALIZATION PLAN
IT WAS NEVER GOING TO WORK BECAUSE IT LET DRUG USERS RUN WILD, WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES
The B.C. NDP is scaling back its drug-decriminalization experiment after skyrocketing crime and public disorder spurred an indignant backlash throughout the province. While this is a welcome development, Premier David Eby's belated pivot deserves little praise.
When the province decriminalized drugs early last year, many people, myself included, predicted that it would be a disaster. While there are a variety of ways to approach decriminalization, some of which are productive, the model embraced by Eby was reckless and lazy.
In Portugal, the seminal example of success for drug policymakers, “decriminalization” never granted drug users the near-unlimited freedom they enjoy in B.C. Instead, individuals caught possessing or openly using small amounts of drugs are sent to non-criminal “dissuasion commissions” that can use punitive measures, such as fines, to coerce people into highly accessible treatment services.
The Portuguese model was never meant to exempt addicts from the social contracts that govern public life. It was never meant to normalize open drug use. All it did, at first, was build an alternative justice system that had vigorous mechanisms in place to divert addicts away from jails and into rehab. This was a sensible approach that demonstrably saved lives and reduced the spread of infectious diseases.
Portugal's early successes faded over time, however, as budget cuts gnawed away at the country's treatment capacity and forced the government to outsource addiction services to non-profit groups. Overdoses, deaths and crime rose as these groups prioritized providing “non-judgemental” harm reduction services over pressuring addicts into treatment. These days, the system has become so dysfunctional that a growing chorus of voices is calling for reform and partial re-criminalization.
Despite this fall from grace, the early years of the Portuguese model, when treatment was prioritized, remain a powerful case study of success. Had B.C. made a serious attempt to adopt this approach, perhaps all would have been well — but that is not what happened.
Instead, the B.C. NDP decided to simply let drug users run wild, without consequences. Investment into treatment capacity was neglected and no mechanisms were developed to maintain public order or pressure addicts into getting better. Policymakers assumed that simply “destigmatizing” drug use would improve treatment uptake — but that hypothesis, which was never really evidence-based, turned out to be spectacularly wrong.
WHAT DID THE GOVERNMENT DO? THE BARE MINIMUM. — ADAM ZIVO
Drug use soared. Crime exploded. Carnage. Assaults. Syringes proliferated in playgrounds. A narcotic haze fell over certain neighbourhoods, seeping outward. Traffickers rejoiced in their newfound impunity. And still, overdoses and deaths climbed higher. Blue lips. Parades of ambulances. Lives extinguished. Real human beings, dead. Brothers. Sisters. Parents. Children. Where were the promised benefits? Missing in action. Fictitious. Everything got worse.
Most of this was utterly predictable — and yet, somehow, the province's failures managed to exceed the wildest imagination of any cynic. Had a prophet told Canadians just a few years ago that open meth and fentanyl use would be normalized in hospitals, and nurses would be expected to work among knives and toxic fumes, we would have all called them mad.
People got angry. Of course they did. And what did the government do? The bare minimum.
Eby moved to recriminalize drugs in most public places through a new provincial law last fall (“Bill 34”), but only after voters' exasperation made it impossible not to. The enforcement of that law was immediately stymied by a court injunction, which was granted in January when Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of B.C. Christopher Hinkson decided that public drug use — something banned until five seconds ago — might actually constitute a human right. Hinkson made this determination using the flimsiest of evidence and logic.
And what did Eby do? The bare minimum, again. After his attempts to appeal the injunction failed, he surrendered to the slow machinations of the courts despite the obvious urgency of the problem. Lawlessness remained the norm. After the public learned, belatedly, that hospitals were brimming with illicit drugs and violence, his government resorted to gaslighting. “Everything is fine! None of this is real! Trust us!” they promised. B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix falsely told the public that weapons are “absolutely not allowed” in hospitals. Ignoring the truth becomes reflexive, I suppose.
But these claims were quickly dispelled. The chaos was real.
And now (finally!) Eby and his bureaucrats are ending this experiment. Partly. Last week he asked the federal government to step in and ban all public drug use within the province at the federal level — a move that will neatly, and perhaps quickly, bypass the aforementioned court injunction, which only applied to Bill 34. This is an improvement, of course, although simple possession will remain legal — so drug traffickers need not worry; they can still profit off death and misery unencumbered.
What finally compelled Eby to pivot? Horrendous media coverage and weakening polling numbers, most likely. An election is coming in a few months. The B.C. Conservatives are surging and Eby's government, once a juggernaut, suddenly seems vulnerable.
Should the premier be applauded? Absolutely not. Political cynicism needs no praise. There is no leadership here. Eby is too late. Too reluctant. Too calculating. Too insufficient. And, worse yet, all the charlatans and socalled “experts” who evangelized about decriminalization are still cozily nestled within his government. Any reasonable person should worry about whether they will impose their fatal experiments again, should Eby win the next election.
If any good can come from this debacle, it is a new cautionary tale, paid for with foam-lipped corpses. Other jurisdictions in Canada, such as Toronto, are also exploring drug decriminalization. They cannot be allowed to. These games have to end.
SHOULD THE PREMIER BE APPLAUDED? ABSOLUTELY NOT.