It’s past time to decriminalize simple possession of narcotics

With cannabis legalization already a hazy memory, political momentum is building to consider the decriminalization of simple possession of all narcotics. Under decriminalization, administrative fines could be issued for possession of small amounts of drugs, but no criminal sanctions would follow. Illicit drug trafficking would remain a crime.

Last April, B.C.’s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, published a report recommending this step. And last week, a parliamentary health committee recommended decriminalization. A member of this committee, Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (one of my former students), then introduced a decriminalization bill (Bill C-460) in Parliament. The gesture may be symbolic, however, because so far his own government disagrees with this approach.

Yet there are powerful reasons to move to decriminalization.

First, Canada is undergoing its most serious public health crisis since the Spanish influenza of1918. In the past two and a half years, more than10,000 Canadians have died from overdosing opioids like fentanyl. Overdose deaths are now so prevalent that Canadian life expectancy at birth has stopped rising.

In a Judeo-Christian culture that privileges abstinence and purity of mind and body, these addicts are the fallen, and as such can be easily dismissed and forgotten. As detailed in Dr. Henry’s report, it is the stigma and possible criminal sanctions that discourages drug users from seeking medical help that could save their lives. For instance, Portugal has had great success in reducing overdose deaths since it decriminalized drug possession in 2001.

At a minimum, to deal with the opioid crisis the federal government should permit and regulate a prescribed pharmaceutical market in opioids to distribute to addicts.

The second reason to decriminalize is that the war on drugs, by any measure, is an unmitigated disaster. This war never reduced illicit drug consumption or made drugs more expensive. Instead, it has created narco-states and global organized crime networks that fuel violence, sex trafficking and terrorism. My research also helps show how trillions of dollars from this illegal trade are laundered annually around the world, pumping up real estate prices in cities like Vancouver and Toronto. The war also sucks up billions of dollars in government resources and distracts law enforcement from pursuing more serious crimes of violence, hence making the public less safe.

Third, criminalizing drug possession generates a large prison population guilty of nothing other than the possession of controlled narcotics. After their incarceration, the convicts are then ripe to join a permanent criminal underclass. South of the border, the United States incarcerates more than two million people, with roughly a third of them Black males. Here in Canada, Indigenous peoples make up roughly 4 per cent of our total population, but 27 per cent of the prison population. The majority of the prisoners in both systems were convicted of non-violent possession or sale offences.

Just as the American drug war reflects the times of slavery by caging Black bodies, Canada is re-enacting a version of the residential school system by disproportionately imprisoning Indigenous peoples. When these racial outcomes are considered, the war on drugs moves from bad policy to one that is unconscionable.

Finally, we know that alcohol provokes significant social harm, including drunk driving, worker absenteeism, partner abuse and other violent crime. Yet we also recognize that the costs of alcohol prohibition far outweigh the benefits of the legal sale and consumption of booze. Decriminalizing would similarly reduce the social harms associated with drug prohibition (while recognizing that many experts prefer full legalization to best promote the public interest).

Changing Canadian drug laws would raise concerns about generating more addicts, and steps would need to be taken to educate young people. On the other hand, decriminalization would better protect youth by reducing the chance that street drugs like cocaine are spiked with deadly fentanyl.

Decriminalization would also create tricky legal and political issues for many international agreements signed by Canada.

In short, decriminalizing would not be easy or risk-free. But decriminalization will not bring about the apocalypse.

Rather, it will make drug use and abuse a public health issue, not a matter for criminal sanctions. By doing so, decriminalization will save the lives of vulnerable individuals while promoting the interests of our larger communities.