The policy shift came after Health Canada allowed an exemption from federal drug laws so people 18 and over could carry up to 2.5 grams of opioids.
Posted: Jan. 31, 2023 7:58AMB.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, from left to right, Carolyn Bennett, federal minister of Mental Health and Addictions, and B.C. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Jennifer Whiteside stand together during a news conference in Vancouver, on Monday, January 30, 2023.
Dean Wilson, who began working as a peer facilitator at the B.C. Centre on Substance Use in 2017 as a heroin user, said decriminalization is a welcome change to prevent drug users’ interactions with police. “There’s nothing out there that’s safe unless you test your dope every time. And you can’t do that if you’re an active addict.”Insite, a supervised consumption site that opened in Vancouver in 2003 as North America’s first such facility, is among the few places to have a specialized machine that drug users can access to get their substances analyzed for contaminants including fentanyl.
Researchers and people who use drugs say the 2.5-gram threshold is too low for those who may be forced to have more contact with sellers on the black market as they try to avoid interactions with police. The province requested the limit be 4.5 grams, while police called for a total of one gram for all the drugs allowed under the exemption.
More than two-thirds of officers with the RCMP and municipal departments in B.C. have so far taken training on aspects of decriminalization, which involves handing out so-called resource cards to people who use drugs, Whiteside told a news conference Monday. “These are things that I’m going to be watching and this is something that the government is going to have to address. That’s a very key, critical part of this,” said Serr, who is also deputy chief of the police department in Abbotsford, B.C.
Bennett noted that one project in Vancouver, where a small number of drug users are prescribed powdered fentanyl, could be promising as part of an increased, regulated supply for more people.
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