Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government said it would let B.C. decriminalize the drugs in a first-of-its-kind exemption in Canada. By not prosecuting people carrying small amounts of drugs, the B.C. government hopes to tackle the issue as a health problem rather than through the criminal justice system. But this policy would only worsen an already dismal situation.
The western Canadian province of British Columbia began a three-year pilot program to stop prosecuting people for carrying small amounts of heroin, meth, ecstasy, or crack cocaine, as part of an effort to fight a drug overdose crisis.
B.C. accounts for about a third of the 32,000 deaths due to overdose and trafficking nationally since 2016, according to official data. The province declared drug overdose a public health emergency that year.
The problem worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted illicit drug supply chains as well support services, leaving people with more toxic drugs that they used alone.
Preliminary data released Tuesday by the province showed there were 2,272 suspected illicit drug toxicity deaths in 2022, the second largest annual number ever recorded, behind 2021, which had 34 more deaths.
To be clear, the NDP administration has absolutely failed its constituents in terms of the number of people dying from drug overdoses in the province each month. Instead of addressing the situation with a strong, well-thought-out policy, the government is taking moves that could mean disaster for British Columbians.
Make no mistake: legalising drugs is not a sensible policy. If heroin is legalised, its price will fall dramatically, hypodermic needles will be freely available at the local drug store, and drugs can be obtained anywhere. There would be no economical or medical justification to abstain from drug use. The experiment of legalising heroin in the United Kingdom failed, owing mostly to increased addiction. The present crack epidemic is significantly worse than the heroin epidemic. Those addicted to crack almost completely disregard all other factors, including work, sleep, food, family, and children. Crack abuse is not a victimless crime; addicts frequently victimise their children through negligence, as well as their employers and co-workers through sluggishness and carelessness.
The percentage of occasional cocaine users who become binge users does not reflect the number of people who would become addicted if the substance is legalised, but it is likely to rise. Illegal drugs increase crime, partially because some users resort to crime to fund their appetites, and partly because particular substances inspire some users to act more violently. Legalization, on the other hand, will have no effect on addiction or its effects on the proclivity to violence. Instead of legalising drugs, greater treatment, education, and research are required to reduce drug dependency and the negative health and societal consequences of drug use.
Every day that the NDP does not address this catastrophe with the urgency it deserves is a wasted day. People in the province require a unified, province-wide plan so that when they reach out for assistance, they can get it right away. It is past time for the NDP government to rethink its objectives and take action to halt the awful loss of life.
