MLA’s call to end B.C.’s drug decriminalization program misguided: advocate

A BC United MLA has reached out to the federal government in hopes of putting an immediate end to B.C.’s drug decriminalization pilot program.

In a letter to the federal minister for mental health and addictions, Elenore Sturko says she believes the province hasn’t proved its one-year-old decriminalization pilot is working, especially after another record breaking year for toxic drug deaths.

But Leslie McBain, co-founder of advocacy group Moms Stop the Harm, says Sturko doesn’t understand the point of the three year pilot, which is to prevent people in possession of a small amount of drugs from entering the criminal justice system.

“It’s primarily to keep people who use drugs out of the criminal justice system,” McBain said. “It doesn’t actually have an impact on the number of deaths in B.C.”

Sturko also writes in her letter that unwitnessed safe supply, when people are prescribed regulated drugs for take-home use, should be defunded.

But McBain says safer supply programs are the only thing stopping toxic drug deaths right now.

“Legalized, regulated supply is the primary answer to stopping the deaths right away,” McBain said.

Despite this, she says only a very small percentage of drug users in B.C. actually have access to safer supply programs.

In response to Sturko’s letter, McBain says she’s “sad and upset” that Sturko would go this far to stop a program that’s helping people, and regardless, one year simply isn’t enough to know what the impacts of the decriminalization program are.

“Every single death puts a family or friend or colleague into grief. That’s a huge amount of grief in this province and in this country from deaths that are preventable,” McBain said.

“We need to treat drug addiction and use as a health issue instead of a criminal issue.”

-With files from Srushti Gangdev