Canada has announced that British Columbia (BC) will receive a criminal code exemption allowing the province to temporarily decriminalise the possession of small amounts of drugs.
BC requested the exemption after more than 2,000 people died of overdoses in the province last year.
The three-year limited trial is the first time Canada has tried such a measure, allowing adults to possess a combined total of 2.5 grams of cocaine, opioids, methamphetamine and MDMA, the BBC reported.
The substances will remain illegal but adults who are found to have an allowed amount intended for personal use will not face arrest, be charged, or have their drugs confiscated. Information on social and health services will instead be provided.
BC made the request to the federal government last year “to remove the shame that often prevents people from reaching out for life-saving help”.
On Tuesday, the federal minister of mental health and addictions, Carolyn Bennett, said that “for too many years, the ideological opposition to harm reduction has cost lives”.
“We are doing this to save lives, but also to give people using drugs their dignity and choices,” she added.
Vancouver mayor Kennedy Stewart said the measure “marks a fundamental rethinking of drug policy that favours healthcare over handcuffs”.
The trial will be conducted between 31 January 2023 to 31 January 2026. The exemption won’t apply on school campuses, at childcare facilities, airports, or to members of the Canadian military.
Five years ago, BC announced that the overdose crisis was officially a public health emergency. Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, overdose deaths reached all-time high levels. More than 9,000 people have died from overdoses in BC since 2016.
Regions across the country have called for a change in drug policy. Several public health officials have called for some decriminalisation, as have the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.
The trial could become “a template for other jurisdictions across Canada,” Ms Bennett suggested, according to the BBC.
In 2020, Oregon became the first state in the US to remove criminal penalties for possessing some drugs. The state subsequently registered a drop in drug arrests but it has prompted a debate concerning if the measure led more drug users to seek help.
Recreational use of marijuana was legalised in Canada in 2018.
