The province has requested Health Canada exempt possessing small amounts of drugs from being considered a criminal offence. (Pikist)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

overdose crisis

Province lobbies to decriminalize small amounts of illicit drugs

Nov 1, 2021 | 3:33 PM

NANAIMO — Amid no sign the drug toxicity crisis is improving in B.C., the province wants criminal penalities wiped out for people possessing small amounts of illicit drugs.

Mental health and addictions minister Sheila Malcolmson told a Monday, Nov. 1 news conference the province has formally requested Health Canada to make the change in British Columbia.

“Substance use and addictions is a public health issue, it is not a criminal justice issue,” the Nanaimo MLA said.

Malcolmson described decriminalizing small amounts of drugs an important step in removing barriers for people hoping to access health and treatment services.

She said stigma prevents people from getting the help they need.

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“Shame and fear can make people hide their drug use and use drugs alone and especially at a time of terribly toxic supply, using alone can mean dying alone.”

Malcolmson said more needed to be done in addition to an historic amount of resources poured into the province’s health system in recent months to fight the drug toxicity crisis.

More than 7,000 British Columbians have died since the drug toxicity crisis led to the province declaring a public health emergency in 2016.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry told Monday’s news conference 2,800 people have died from toxic drugs in the province since the pandemic began.

As of Oct. 29, 2,156 people had died directly from the COVID-19 itself.

The BC Coroners Service reported more than 1,200 people died from illicit drug use in the province between January and the end of July, a nearly 30 per cent increase from the same period in 2020.

Data from the BC Coroners Service showed 25 people in Nanaimo died as a result of toxic drug use in the first seven months of the year.

Fentanyl continues to be the main driver in drug toxicity across the province with 86 per cent of all overdose-related deaths in 2021 containing the additive.

The Coroners Service also reported carfentanil was detected in 113 drug toxicity deaths so far in 2021, up from 65 in the first seven months of last year.

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