B.C. ends drug decriminalization, but needs to start charging for possession again: MLA
It didn’t work. B.C.’s drug decriminalization plan is a fail.
The radical experiment died at the end of January. The province’s health minister admitted the pilot program “hasn’t delivered the results that we hoped for.”
“Decriminalization — the pilot at least — is over,” says the Independent MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale, Elenore Sturko, a former RCMP officer and long-time foe of B.C.’s soft-on-drugs approach.
Elenore is worried the province’s step-back isn’t enough; she says the province now needs to commit to charge people for possession of the hard stuff: cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA, and opioids like heroin and fentanyl. She says B.C. Premier David Eby started to dial back on the experiment in 2024, but the free-for-all continued in public places.
“We’ve had a huge increase in public street disorder,” Eleanor says. “People cutting illicit powders on Tim Horton’s tables, hospitals, everything. It was pretty wild.”
What’s the point of police arresting people in possession of illegal drugs, she asks, rhetorically, if the Crown isn’t going to proceed with charges?
“So we diminished our opportunity to help compel and guide people towards the help they actually need,” she laments. “Of course, we don’t want to put everyone with an addiction in jail. It’s not the answer,” she agrees, but for many people in trouble with the law, it’s the drug use that actually drives the bad behaviour.
Elenore’s frustrated by the government’s failure to clearly explain what it learned during the province’s drug decriminalization pilot. And, she’s demanding a public, fact-finding inquiry. “We were promised robust, scientific data,” she declares. “We’ve not received that; we’ve just been told, ‘Oh, we’re stopping decriminalization because it didn’t work.’ ”
Show us what you learned, she more-or-less demands of the province, including the impacts on public safety.
“You can guess why neither the provincial nor the federal government would like an inquiry into these things,” Elenore shares in a recent conversation. “Because,” she predicts, “there will be evidence that they ignored signs of harm being done on the population.” And taking ownership of those outcomes could be politically damaging.
Elenore pays attention to what’s happening in the rest of the country, including Alberta’s model that in some cases forces treatment of addicts.
“I love what Alberta is doing,” she volunteers, “…creating a system where they are actually saying, ‘Yeah, in some cases, we’re going to need to intervene.’”
But she’s suggesting B.C. needs a unique model. “We have a much larger problem, and we have a larger population of people with brain damage here,” she says, “so our model has to be created in a different way. But I would like to see the same intent to help, and the same intent to intervene when we have to.”
B.C. treats addicts’ symptoms under the mental health act, she explains, “so if you are in a psychosis, because you do too much cocaine or whatever, they’re going to bring you in and treat you. And yes, they’re going to help you stabilize.” But, she continues, the mental health act doesn’t have the goal of long-term sobriety, and simply being addicted to drugs doesn’t qualify you for treatment under that mental health umbrella.
“Activists will say, ‘Elenore wants to send everybody to court. She’s going to charge them all,’” she chuckles.
“If someone voluntarily wants to get help, I am your biggest champion,” she counters. “I want you to walk into any door and to be able to say, ‘I want detox today, and I need to go to treatment, and I’d like lifelong support and counselling if I need it, and a nice place to live that’s drug-free and safe for me.’ But for those who cannot make that choice, and their life is a spiral of criminal charges — you know terrorizing your community and ultimately hurting yourself — we have to find other more, maybe intrusive, interventions.”
To make her point, Elenore relates the recent story of a homeless addict illegally occupying and vandalizing a tugboat in Nanaimo, then barricading himself inside; he had to be removed by an emergency response team using tear gas. “The judge believed this homeless addict with a history of violent and criminal behaviour should be let out to continue using drugs,” she reports in disgust. The man was set free, and spotted back on the same dock shortly after release.
“So this individual is involved in a violent crime … just last year,” Elenore reiterates. “This person spent 30 hours inside someone’s tugboat … smoking drugs from what appears to be the exact same bubbler they hand out in government harm reduction programs.”
Elenore shakes her head in disbelief; Nanaimo RCMP followed up with a public education campaign, a step-by-step guide on what to do if someone’s going to break into your home. Instead of reacting to an addicted criminal — to compel treatment or keep them for their own safety and the well-being of the community — the addict is released and citizens are told to barricade their homes.
Sheesh. And what about businesses, I ask, citing London Drugs’ recent decision to close its store in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
“I’ve been impressed with their tolerance and willingness to support the community,” Elenore responds, but they lost millions of dollars trying to revitalize that community, and smaller businesses can’t make that kind of community investment. “What killed it at the end of the day?” she asks; “They couldn’t keep staff; they were dealing with feces being thrown at staff, violence, threats, weapons, on a daily basis. Even with an intense police presence in that area … it was just unsustainable.
“It isn’t about targeting people with addictions,” she concludes, “it’s about dealing with behaviours that are contrary to the fabric of our social system … people whose behaviour harms the community.”
Activists are still pushing the notion that safe supply — where the government supplies addicts with their drugs — is the answer, and that we stopped decriminalization too soon. Elenore grimaces. To refute this activism, “let’s just lay it down on the table,” she suggests, “so that it is public and we have these strong reports and data points … British Columbians need to push back on the onslaught; the continuous pounding of activism that has contributed to the problem in the first place.”
From what I can see in this independent MLA — booted from the B.C. Conservative Party last September by now-ousted party leader John Rustad — the activists have met their match.
“I do feel there is a way forward. I do feel that, as misguided as this government has been, they would like to take a new course,” Elenore says. “Unfortunately, they’re also broke, so it’s going to be very difficult.”
National Post
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