B.C. drug advocates cautiously optimistic about decriminalization
David Dukhart eats his breakfast in downtown Nelson on a cold morning. He had a difficult night sleeping outside, the temperatures dropped to -16 C, and right now his focus is on staying warm and filling his belly.
Dukhart shrugs at the mention of decriminalization. He doesn’t know what, if anything, it will mean for him. But the crisis, he says, can’t get much worse.Federal Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett and her B.C. counterpart Jennifer Whiteside described the three-year pilot program during a news conference Monday as a historic step in addressing the crisis.
Garth Mullins, an organizer with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and host of The Crackdown podcast, doesn’t believe decriminalization will lead to trust between substance users and law enforcement. The less interaction, the better, he said. “The big issue remains a health issue and there’s still resources that are required on the mental health and the complex care side. While we believe that we are ready, we are also still somewhat concerned that there are pieces on the other side that aren’t. So we’ll have to navigate as we go.”
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