Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has called on the province to decriminalize possession of illicit drugs if the quantities involved are small. She argues, with some justification, that the war on drugs has been lost. With overdose deaths averaging nearly four a day in sa国际传媒, new ideas are required.
However, changes to the Criminal Code are a federal responsibility, and Ottawa has said it will not make drug possession legal. Henry deals with that by asking the sa国际传媒 government to lend a hand.
Specifically, she proposes that the province stop prosecuting individuals found in possession of small quantities. This would relieve drug addicts of the stain that comes with a criminal record, and make it easier to rehabilitate them.
Somewhat surprisingly, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth poured cold water on the idea. We call that surprising because, as Farnworth concedes, several police forces have already adopted such a policy with his support.
Victoria Police Chief Del Manak is on record as saying: 鈥淚 can tell you from the Victoria Police Department鈥檚 perspective, I dedicate zero resources to minor drug possession.鈥�
A skeptic might conclude that Farnworth wants to have it both ways. He will not openly embrace decriminalization, yet if individual police departments adopt that policy, he will not interfere.
However, there is a further consideration. At one point, Henry argued that decriminalizing possession of controlled substances for personal use would 鈥減rotect [addicts] from the highly toxic street drug supply.鈥�
But how would that work? Decriminalized or not, users would still need to get their drugs from someone. Is the provincial health officer proposing that the government act as a supplier?
There is a precedent for that. In 2005, a clinical trial was set up in Vancouver, called the NAOMI project (short for North American Opiate Medication Initiative). Almost 200 regular drug users were recruited and given the active ingredient of heroin.
The results were striking. Almost 90 per cent of participants stayed on for the full two years of the trial. In contrast, nearly 50 per cent of users given methadone (a less addictive substitute) dropped out.
Before the trial, participants were spending an average of $1,200 US per month on drugs. That fell to about $350聽after the trial concluded.
One result was a drop in petty-crime rates. There were also positive outcomes in job retention, psychiatric status and family relations.
More than a decade later, almost 100 of the original participants are still being given government-supplied heroin, after court rulings found the province had a moral duty to do so.
So yes, there is evidence that providing clean drugs can have beneficial results. Several studies in Europe have confirmed it.
The NAOMI trial formed the basis for a new project currently running in Vancouver. The Crosstown clinic is giving addicts hydromorphone. This drug was chosen because, although it has the same addictive power as heroin, it is a prescription medication and therefore legal to dispense.
There are no immediate plans to expand the project to other urban centres. However, if it proves successful, that is a possibility.
One obvious concern is that a program of this kind risks increasing the number of illicit-drug users. Supporters say that shouldn鈥檛 happen, because candidates are given a medical exam to establish they are already addicted.
This makes sense so far as it goes. Yet there is a danger of normalizing behaviour that everyone agrees is highly damaging.
There are no good answers here. The use of addictive substances dates back to ancient times, although new arrivals such as fentanyl are massively more life-threatening.
What can be said is that the decision to decriminalize should not be left to the policies of individual police departments. On an issue of such importance, the government has to make its position clear. This is no time for word games.
