Canadian province tries decriminalizing medication to struggle overdose disaster

VANCOUVER, Jan 31 (Reuters) – The western Canadian province of British Columbia on Tuesday started a three-year pilot program to cease prosecuting folks for carrying small quantities of heroin, meth, ecstasy, or crack cocaine, as a part of an effort to struggle a drug overdose disaster.

B.C. accounts for a few third of the 32,000 deaths attributable to overdose and trafficking nationally since 2016, based on official knowledge. The province declared drug overdose a public well being emergency that 12 months.

The issue worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted illicit drug provide chains as properly assist companies, leaving folks with extra poisonous medication that they used alone.

Preliminary knowledge launched Tuesday by the province confirmed there have been 2,272 suspected illicit drug toxicity deaths in 2022, the second largest annual quantity ever recorded, behind 2021, which had 34 extra deaths.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s authorities stated in Could it could let B.C. decriminalize the medication in a first-of-its-kind exemption in Canada. By not prosecuting folks carrying small quantities of medicine, the B.C. authorities hopes to sort out the problem as a well being downside somewhat than via the felony justice system.

The province says the exemption is meant to scale back the stigma related to substance use and to make it simpler for folks to method authorities for steerage.

Robert Schwartz, a professor on the College of Toronto, stated the measure was commendable as a primary step, however that extra wanted to be finished to sort out the drug downside.

“The issue that we’ve with these substances is that we’ve an enormous, illicit provide that is inflicting nice hurt,” Schwartz stated. “To essentially cope with this, we want a complete public well being method. This decriminalization, it is a first step.”

The medication on the exemption record, which additionally consists of fentanyl and different opioids, stay unlawful and the exemption from arrest is just for possession of as much as 2.5 grams for private use.

“For a few years we’ve had a de facto coverage to not arrest folks for private drug possession” however this variation will imply fewer seizures of small quantities of medicine, a spokesperson for the Vancouver Police Division stated.

Different Canadian communities are carefully watching the pilot. Additionally they face an increase in drug overdose deaths.

Many well being specialists argue decriminalization would encourage drug customers to make use of them in safer areas the place they’ll entry medical care.

Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto
Enhancing by Deepa Babington

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