Possession of small amounts of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and other hard drugs will be allowed in Canada’s westernmost province.
The province will no longer criminally prosecute adults age 18 and over who are caught with less than 2.5 grams of hard drugs, including heroin, morphine, fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA . Instead, they will be offered information on social programs and treatment, if they request it. Drug trafficking will remain illegal, regardless of the amount possessed. The experiment will last three years.
British Columbia’s move follows similar actions by Portugal, the first country to decriminalize hard drugs in 2001, and the US state of Oregon, which did so in 2020. The change will be most visible in the region’s largest city, Vancouver, known for its world-class skiing, hiking and restaurants. Yet tourists are often shocked to see alleys close to some of the main shopping areas filled with heroin addicts.
Even decades later, it’s impossible to say whether Portugal’s statistical victories, such as plummeting overdose deaths and HIV cases linked to dirty needles, were the result of other economic and social trends, said Jason Hockenberry, a department chair at Yale University’s School of Public Health. “Sometimes shame and stigma can motivate behavior change,” he said.
Alex Stevens, a criminal justice professor at the School of Social Policy at the University of Kent in the UK, said Portugal’s success in the early 2000s was largely due to the full package of social programs it implemented around that time. Incentives to hire people with drug problems, a guaranteed minimum income and housing assistance may have all played a role, he said.Article content
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