Canada province ends drug decriminalization

VANCOUVER (AFP) — Over 35 years as a drug user, Vancouver resident Garth Mullins said he’s had “hundreds and hundreds” of interactions with police, and long believed drug decriminalization was smart policy.

“I was first arrested for drug possession when I was 19, and it changes your life,” said Mullins, who is now in his 50s and was an early backer of Canadian province British Columbia’s  (BC) decriminalization program that ended on Saturday.

“That time served inside can add up for a lot of people. They do a lifetime jolt in a series of three month bits,” he told Agence France-Presse.

BC’s three-year experiment with drug decriminalization, which launched in 2023 and shielded people from arrest for possession of up to 2.5 grams of hard drugs, was groundbreaking for Canada.

Many praised it as a bold effort to ensure the intensifying addiction crisis devastating communities across the country was treated as a healthcare challenge, not a criminal justice issue.

But on 14 January, BC’s Health Minister Josie Osborne announced the province would not be extending the program.

“The intention was clear: to make it easier for people struggling with addiction to reach out for help without fear of being criminalized,” Osborne said.

The program “has not delivered the results we hoped for,” she told reporters.

For Mullins, the province’s desired results were never realistic.

The former heroin user, who currently takes methadone, is an activist and broadcaster who co founded the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), which advised BC’s government on decriminalization.

At VANDU’s office in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighborhood, home to many drug users, the walls are full of pictures honoring those who have died from overdose.

“The idea behind decriminalization was one simple thing: To stop all of us from going to jail again and again and again,” he said.

Breaking the cycle of arrests is crucial because criminal records make it more difficult to find work and housing, often perpetuating addiction, experts say.

But thinking decriminalization could help steer waves of users into rehab was misguided, and misinforming the public about the possible outcomes of the policy risked a backlash, Mullins said.

“For everybody out there, in society, sending fewer junkies to jail might not sound like a good thing to do.”