B.C. plans to ban pill presses in fight against overdose deaths

VICTORIA — B.C. is moving to ban the use of pill presses as it continues to try to curb the province’s fentanyl overdose crisis.

Solicitor General Mike Farnworth introduced legislation Wednesday that would forbid the sale and ownership of pill presses to anyone who is not a health care professional, pharmacist or otherwise licensed to need such a device. The machines can be used to produce thousands of counterfeit pills an hour, and are thought to be playing a major role in the availability of street drugs contaminated with deadly fentanyl that have led to a surge of overdose deaths and a public health emergency.

“The reality is there are individuals right now who import these machines, sell them in British Columbia, they know what they are being used for, they know they are being used to produce pills that kill people, and they are getting away with it,” said Farnworth. “And what this legislation does is plug loopholes that allow that to continue to happen in this province.”

The legislation also proposes to penalize anyone who sells a pill press without being both an authorized seller and making sure the person who is buying the device is legally able to own a pill press. Any sales records must be given to government, and anyone who wants to apply for a sales licence must undergo a criminal record check.

The bill also sets out inspection powers for the province, with the creation of a new registrar’s office, as well as the ability to seize machines, inspect property with a warrant, request records be produced for inspection and seize any illegal pill presses. The pill press machines to be legislated include automated presses, gel cap machines and pharmaceutical mixers, said the government.

Penalties would be fines of up to $200,000 on first conviction, up to $350,000 on a second offence and up to $500,000 and six months in jail on subsequent convictions.

Farnworth had been urging the provincial pill press ban while in opposition before the 2017 B.C. election, but the then Liberal government said such a ban would be more effective coming from the federal government.

Pill presses are already illegal unless licensed in the United States. Alberta banned the devices in 2016, instituting a law that levies $50,000 fines.