Canada - Top health officer calls on B.C. to 'urgently' decriminalize possession of illicit drugs

[S.J.B.]

Top health officer calls on B.C. to 'urgently' decriminalize possession of illicit drugs
Michelle Ghoussoub, Rhianna Schmunk
CBC
April 24th, 2019

B.C.'s top health officer has recommended the province move urgently to decriminalize possession of illegal drugs for personal use, saying the years-long overdose crisis needs to be treated as a public health issue, not a criminal justice matter.

In a nearly 50-page report released Wednesday, Dr. Bonnie Henry gave an extensive overview of the policies the province has enacted to stop the overdose crisis since a public health emergency was declared in 2016, but stressed decriminalization is "a fundamental underpinning and (a) necessary" next step for the provincial response.

"We have worked very hard to address the crisis ... but I believe it's time for us to take this work one step further," Henry told reporters at a news conference at the legislature in Victoria on Wednesday.

"The current criminal justice-based framework in B.C. and in Canada creates barriers to accessing treatment services. It keeps people at home, not talking about their drug use, using alone and dying," the health officer continued.

As provincial health officer, Henry acts independently in creating her reports and making recommendations to government. She said the sole recommendation out of Wednesday's report implores the province to look at decriminalization.

Read the full story here.

 

[S.J.B.]

Editorial: How drug decriminalization could help stem an epidemic of drug overdoses
The Globe and Mail
April 25th, 2019

Three years ago this month, British Columbia responded to the opioid crisis by declaring a public health emergency. The province took steps such as expanding supervised drug-consumption sites and distributing naloxone, an overdose-reversal medication. Estimates suggest that several thousand lives were saved.

Even so, the death toll over the past three years has been severe: more than three dead each day in B.C., and nearly 4,000 in total. And that’s one province.

This week, Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, said the steps so far have helped, but they’ve had only “minimal success.” Dr. Henry sees need for more urgent action, and she called on the B.C. government to decriminalize drugs. All of them. She cited a growing body of evidence that this could help to mitigate the current crisis.

...

Governments in Canada, from Victoria to Ottawa, are resistant to decriminalization. Canadians, however, are beginning to see it as part of an answer, even if it is imperfect and won’t fix everything. An Angus Reid poll in February found about half of Canadians support the decriminalization of all drugs. Support is strongest in B.C., at 56 per cent.

Decriminalization of drugs is not a magic bullet that will end drug addiction. But it can be part of a broader harm-reduction strategy that includes many other steps. More money for treatment. Less money spent on prosecution. And a clearer-eyed focus on this national tragedy, and addiction generally, as a health crisis.

Read the full story here.

It's great to see an editorial like this in the Globe and Mail (the highest-circulation newspaper in Canada). I was not aware that decriminalization had such high support among Canadians. It makes me hope that it could actually happen in the near future...

 

[SunriseChampion]

We can hope.

It's pretty sad that it took such a serious epidemic of overdose deaths just to get the conversation started at a more public/societal level.
I'm also pleasantly surprised about the level of reported support for decriminalisation. Hey, it means that a good number of us are sensible people.

How much of an effect do you think the precedent of Denver decriminalising mushrooms will have in influencing governments here in how they treat drug possession and use? Or, never mind that......what about the Mexican government's plans to move towards full decriminalisation whilst attempting to convince the Yanks to do the same?

Man, ten years ago, I wouldn't have guessed that we'd be talking about this right now. Good times. Definitely makes me a bit more optimistic about the future.

 

[S.J.B.]

How much of an effect do you think the precedent of Denver decriminalising mushrooms will have in influencing governments here in how they treat drug possession and use? Or, never mind that......what about the Mexican government's plans to move towards full decriminalisation whilst attempting to convince the Yanks to do the same?

I think the small Denver vote will have a bigger effect in the United States, actually. This is how cannabis legalization started there, and look how far it has come. I'm optimistic as well!

 

[SunriseChampion]

For sure, it will have a massive impact there. Oregon already has a planned plebiscite on the issue for next year.
I'm just hopeful that this will be the beginning of the final push for sane/rational/reasonable/logical drugs policy.

I've got 4g of zooms....think I might celebrate small victories tonight, after the TFC match. (hopefully we win or the set and setting will just be wroooong haha)

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

Now if they only would give heroin (or whatever, large dose morphine XR pills like in Austria/Switzerland/France as an option, which has a much larger success rate than racemic methadone like in North America and the UK and bupe, which clearly is so good for long term maintenance and harder to get off of than methadone due to the tiny dosage, I could just reduce by 2-3mg of methadone a month, I couldn't reduce by 0.125mg of suboxone unless I played with the pills in ways that are likely illegal (to them)). They do give heroin to like 20 people in BC, for people who had awful side effects from both methadone and suboxone, leaving them with having to continue to shoot up, sure, very cleanly with Swiss diacetylmorphine ampoules, while they could keep you for 30 days like in the previously mentioned countries with 200mg MS-Contins to start with, reducing to 100 ones then 60's, 30's, 15's with some IR's and then be discharged with some 15's for a little while. Something that doesn't jack up your tolerance even more than when you stepped in the clinic for help to start with.