Proposal to decriminalize drugs needs a redo: users

Advocates are calling on the federal government and the City of Vancouver to halt the march toward possible drug decriminalization in the city, saying the process excludes users and requires a doover.

In a letter to federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu and the Vancouver and B.C. working groups on decriminalization, a coalition of 15 organizations said the current proposal must be scrapped or it risks reproducing the harms of prohibition.

“We cannot abide by the phoney `Vancouver Model' of decriminalization and refuse to be tokenized in petty political bids,” reads the letter from groups representing users. “We want decriminalization — but on our terms, not the terms of the police and politicians.”

The group says police have an oversized role in developing the so-called Vancouver model and that the proposed thresholds that define simple possession are too low.

The letter comes after the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users' board of directors resigned from the city's decriminalization working group Monday.

A morning meeting between the working group and Health Canada officials confirmed that the board's input “is not being taken seriously,” VANDU said in a statement.

The open letter also comes before a planned submission on decriminalization to the federal Health Department this Friday.

Health Canada is working with Vancouver on the city's request for exemption from criminal provisions on simple possession of small amounts of drugs.