(Reuters) – The western Canadian province of British Columbia on Tuesday began a three-year pilot program to stop prosecuting people for carrying small amounts of heroin, meth, ecstasy, or crack cocaine, as part of an effort to fight a drug overdose crisis.
B.C. is at the epicenter of Canada’s drug overdose and trafficking crisis that has killed more than 32,000 nationally since 2016, when the province declared it a public health emergency.
The problem worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted illicit drug supply chains as well support services, leaving people with more toxic drugs that they used alone.
Preliminary data released Tuesday by the province showed there were 2,272 suspected illicit drug toxicity deaths in 2022, the second largest annual number ever recorded, behind 2021, which had 34 more deaths.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government said in May it would let B.C. decriminalize the drugs in a first-of-its-kind exemption. By not prosecuting people carrying small amounts of drugs, the B.C. government hopes to tackle the issue as a health problem rather than through the criminal justice system.
The exemption is intended to reduce the stigma associated with substance use and to make it easier for people to approach police and other authorities for guidance.
“For many years we have had a de facto policy not to arrest people for personal drug possession” but this change will mean fewer seizures of small amounts of drugs, a spokesperson for the Vancouver Police Department said.
Other Canadian communities are closely watching the pilot. They also face a rise in drug overdose deaths.
The drugs on the exemption list, which also includes fentanyl and other opioids, remain illegal and the exemption from arrest is only for possession of up to 2.5 grams for personal use.
Many health experts argue decriminalization would encourage drug users to use them in safer spaces where they can access medical care.
(This story has been corrected to change the number of deaths to 32,000 from 32,0000, in paragraph 2)
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto; Editing by Deepa Babington)
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