Dr. Henry told B.C. how to decriminalize drugs without Trudeau. It hasn’t.

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – B.C. Premier John Horgan wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier this week, calling on him to take an “enormous step” to combat the stigmatization of people who use drugs by decriminalizing drug possession for personal use.

The letter came after two months of record-setting overdose death rates in B.C. and a report from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police calling for decriminalization.

But it also came more than a year after B.C.’s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, told Horgan’s government how it could effectively decriminalize drug users without the federal government.

“It’s absurd,” said Leslie McBain, a cofounder of Moms Stop the Harm, an advocacy group pushing for drug policy reform.

Horgan’s letter came less than a week after he apologized for characterizing first-time drug use as a choice that can later become an addiction.

“I regret that I mischaracterized the challenges of addictions,” Horgan said Friday.

‘Political’ letter follows B.C.’s inaction on decriminalization 

McBain said she thought it was a “wimpy apology” and she believes he decided to write a public letter to the prime minister “to make [himself] look good after making a big mistake.”

She said the letter itself is a step in the right direction towards national decriminalization – but it seemed “political,” especially after B.C. has not taken its own steps towards decriminalization.

While “de facto” decriminalization exists in some B.C. communities thanks to police department policies, that’s not enough, according to McBain.

More official and widespread decriminalization would fight the stigma associated with drugs “because there’s pretty much nothing more stigmatizing than going to jail for using the medicine that you need,” she said.

Henry’s April 2019 special report, Stopping the Harm: Decriminalization of People Who Use Drugs in BC, noted Trudeau’s federal government had already made clear it has no intention of changing the country’s drug laws after legalizing cannabis in 2018.

“Immediate provincial action is warranted, and I recommend that the province of B.C. urgently move to decriminalize people who possess controlled substances for personal use,” she wrote.

Henry said B.C.’s solicitor genera could declare a “public health and harm reduction approach as a provincial priority to guide law enforcement.”

She also suggested the province could amend the Police Act to prevent police departments from spending money to enforce simple possession laws.

Province has been ‘bold and innovative’ on drug policy: minister

Judy Darcy, B.C.’s minister of mental health and addictions, said on Tuesday she supports decriminalizing personal drug possession, but it is the “primary” jurisdiction of the federal government.

Darcy did not directly answer when asked why her government hasn’t made the changes recommended by Henry.

She said the B.C. NDP government has “been pushing the envelope from day one” in its response to the overdose crisis fuelled by a toxic drug supply, including recently changing regulations to increase access to a safe supply of prescription drugs for people with addictions.

“We have been bold and innovative in our response,” Darcy said, pointing to provincially funded pilot programs at police departments in Vancouver, Vernon and Abbotsford that divert drug users away from the criminal justice system, towards support from peers.

Policing has changed for the better: Abbotsford chief

Abbotsford’s Angel Program, launched in 2018, allows first responders to put people with drug use issues in contact with a peer support worker who can help them get the resources and support they need.

“Instead of sending them down a pathway of the criminal justice system, [it connects] them with peers who have walked their journey,” Abbotsford’s chief constable, Mike Serr, said Wednesday.

Serr said his officers are also “totally engaged” with the new approach that focuses on supporting, rather than punishing people who use drugs.

“When I was a young police officer, it was very commonplace for us to find somebody using drugs in a back lane or elsewhere and charge them and have them attend court,” he said. “But that really, for us in British Columbia, has changed.”

Serr said Abotsford Police have only laid three simple possession charges in the last 18 months. Meanwhile, he said, the Angel Program has connected more than 200 people with peer support.

Serr said he’s “very proud” of his fellow police chiefs who have come to embrace calls for decriminalization – a topic he said was “very polarizing” in Canadian policing just three years ago.

McBain, whose son, Jordan, died of a prescription drug overdose in 2014, said it’s been “gut-wrenching” to see a resurgence in drug overdose deaths in recent months.

She was “totally” hopeful when she stood next to Henry at a press conference when the Stopping the Harm report was released last year.

“It just seemed like she would be listened to, being the chief medical officer and so on,” McBain said.

Horgan, Solicitor General Mike Farnworth, and MLA Nicholas Simons, who chairs B.C.’s recently formed committee on reforming the Police Act, were not available to be interviewed for this story, according to their representatives.

Asked on June 24 whether the Police Act reform committee would consider Henry’s proposed changes, Horgan said it would address “a whole range of issues; some of them are currently topical; some of them are long-standing.”

He said his government is already acting on other recommendations from the provincial health officer in addressing the opioid crisis.

“We are going to continue to act on those recommendations, as we are able to,” he said.

With files from Liza Yuzda and Kareem Gouda