Daphne Bramham: B.C. municipalities struggling with rising crime and homelessness are pushing back against drug decriminalization
The other point that Goulão consistently makes is that decriminalization happened only after a lengthy period of countrywide public consultations.
Contrast that to British Columbia. Its three-year decriminalization experiment, which began in February, was driven by a coterie of academics, politicians and activists centred in Vancouver. The city and the Downtown Eastside, in particular, has long been the testing ground for policies that have never been put to a vote.
Between 2019 and 2021, calls to the RCMP to respond to mental-health crises increased by 56 per cent. By 2021, half of the fire department’s emergency calls were for medical issues with many related to overdoses. “Criminalizing public drug use will not stop people from using drugs — it will just make it more dangerous,” Pivot said in a statement after the bylaws were repealed. “In this way, the bylaws mimic the harms of criminalization and frustrate the aims of decriminalization.”Article contentData collection has been promised as part of B.C.’s pilot program.
Among the report’s recommendations is that the state government “identify and document gaps that prevent detailed metrics from being implemented that would track the overall effectiveness and impact.”
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