On May 31st, 2022, Health Canada approved British Columbia’s (BC) request for an exemption under the Federal Controlled Drugs and Substance Act (CDSA) to decriminalize the possession of illicit drugs. This policy seeks to remove criminal penalties for possession of up to 2.5 grams of illicit drugs in BC from January 1st, 2023, to January 31st, 2026. The request, similar to a pending one by the City of Toronto, is the first of its kind to be approved in Canada. Crucially, the temporary policy shift is not to be conflated with legalization. Unlike the Trudeau government’s revamped approach to regulating cannabis, illicit drugs and their trafficking will remain illegal in BC. However, similar to legalization, individuals in possession of 2.5 grams or less of illicit drugs will not be arrested, charged, or dispossessed of their drugs. 

The purpose of this federal policy is best understood as a provincial experiment on how substance use is treated in Canada. In the words of BC’s Minister for Mental Health and Addictions, Sheila Malcolmson, “substance use is a public health issue, not a criminal one.” This concept is familiar to global decriminalization advocates, who have long recognized that the criminalization of illicit drugs has had an overwhelmingly harmful effect on those that use drugs. 

Criminalization fundamentally fails to recognize people who use drugs as people, and instead creates harmful stigmas which contribute to their dehumanization. Under criminalization, people who use drugs are forced to do so in private, unsupervised places, consuming impure and imprecise amounts of drugs, and frequently sharing needles. These practices are the root causes of overdose and transmission of blood-borne diseases for people that use drugs. The prevalence of unsafe consumption practices, in conjunction with the rapid influx of lethal fentanyl into Canada’s drug supply, has led to a deadly opioid crisis that had killed over 10,000 people in BC by July 2022. Through the implementation of supervised consumption sites and a prescribed, safe supply of illicit drugs, the greatest harms of drug use can be greatly mitigated. Yet, in order for these options to be made available to people who use drugs, it is necessary to first decriminalize the possession of personal amounts of illicit drugs. 

Having touted the policy as a valuable “tool” in the fight to end BC’s overdose crisis, this policy experiment will allow the federal government to see how effective decriminalization could be in reducing stigma against people who use drugs and the harm caused by substance abuse nationally. Crucially, unless decriminalization is implemented in BC in a responsible and effective manner, it could potentially cause significantly more harm than good. The exact details of how decriminalization will be carried out remain unknown to the general public. Even still, the specified threshold of up to 2.5 grams already carries the potential to completely derail the potential benefits to be gained from legalization. 

In 2018, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) produced a report on substance use in Canada advocating for decriminalization. The report draws upon lessons learned from other international experiments and outlines policy options for how to effectively implement decriminalization in the Canadian context. One key finding was that low thresholds for possession severely limit the impact of decriminalization, creating situations where only those with very low consumption rates are able to benefit, changing very little for moderate to heavy consumers of drugs, who are most likely to be at risk of overdose. 

The federal government’s decision to limit the possession threshold to 2.5 grams came after BC had initially requested a threshold limit of 4.5 grams. However, even 4.5 grams is relatively low when compared to other countries that have already successfully pursued decriminalization. Portugal decriminalized drugs in 2001; since then, a Drug Policy Alliance report demonstrated that “[t]he number of people voluntarily entering treatment has increased significantly, while overdose deaths, HIV infections, problematic drug use, and incarceration for drug-related offences have plummeted.” Notably, Portugal chose to set its threshold amount relative to specific drugs and what is considered to be a “10 day supply” of that specific drug. As different drugs are consumed in different amounts, this policy highlights the inefficacy of a blanket threshold specific to measurable quantity for all drugs. Furthermore, consumption rates for illicit drugs vary heavily amongst users: what might be a week's supply for one person could be a few days for another. A 10-day supply allows for flexibility in enforcement, meaning fewer users will be incarcerated. 

A 2019 report by the BC Provincial Health Officer cited data from other international decriminalization efforts to specifically emphasize the harm of low threshold amounts. In Mexico, where threshold amounts vary by drug but were still set very low, decriminalization actually resulted in “increased numbers of people being charged for trafficking rather than simple possession.” If British Columbians that use drugs who would otherwise be prosecuted on the basis of possession are instead charged with possession with intent to sell, this would exacerbate the impacts of criminalization, given that trafficking is cause for significantly harsher sentences. 

Recognizing the aforementioned harms of low thresholds for decriminalization, the federal government’s decision to set the threshold at 2.5 grams is especially problematic given how it was chosen. Defending the choice, the federal government stated that the threshold was chosen after consultations with BC law enforcement officials. However, another key finding of the CCSA report was that those with lived experience are able to provide uniquely valuable advice on how to best protect people who use drugs under decriminalization. If the Federal Government aims to implement decriminalization in a meaningful manner, it must draw upon the advice of those with lived experience of drug addiction rather than those who have aided in the mass incarceration of people who use drugs. 

In addition to neglecting the input of those who have used drugs, the Federal Government has also failed to consider the perspectives of rural and Indigenous peoples familiar with substance abuse. While Indigenous groups like BC’s First Nations Health Authority were consulted prior to the federal government’s announcement, their specific concerns about the implications of a low threshold amount for residents of remote communities were ignored. According to UBC addictions expert Dr. Eugenia Oviedo-Joekes, people who use drugs that live in rural communities––Indigenous or not––often do not have the option to purchase drugs on a daily basis, causing individuals to purchase drugs in bulk so as to have enough supply to survive until the next opportunity. 

Thankfully, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Carolyn Bennett has cited the threshold of 2.5 grams as a “starting point.” If the federal government wishes to implement decriminalization in BC in a meaningful manner, it should draw upon the valuable input of substance use experts and the lessons learned from global decriminalization experiments. The Federal Government must alter its threshold to account for individual bulk purchases for the purpose of consumption and the variability of dosage weights between drugs. This must be done prior to the beginning of BC’s exemption to the CDSA in January or else the Federal Government will be responsible for the harm this policy is set to cause if it is left untouched.