EDITORIAL – Eby’s backtrack on public drug use is a good start but that’s all
Government signage on drug use.
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
THE DECISION to scale back decriminalization and seek a change allowing enforcement against wanton consumption on illicit drugs in public is good news but it should have come much sooner.
On Friday, a day after the Legislative session in Victoria wrapped up for the week, Premier David Eby issued a news release announcing that his government “is taking action to make illicit drug use illegal in all public spaces, including inside hospitals, on transit and in parks.”
Further down it stated, “The Province is working with the federal government to make changes to the legality of possessing drugs in B.C. This will provide police with the power to enforce against drug use in all public places, including hospitals, restaurants, transit, parks and beaches. Guidance will be given to police to only arrest for simple possession of illicit drugs in exceptional circumstances.
“When police are called to a scene where illegal and dangerous drug use is taking place, they will have the ability to compel the person to leave the area, seize the drugs when necessary or arrest the person, if required.”
It finally clarified that this is not recriminalization of illicit drugs. Possession of small amounts will continue to be legal under the province’s pilot decrim program as long as it’s consumed in private places such as residences and overdose prevention sites.
This comes after many weeks of pressure from opposition politicians, healthcare workers, municipal politicians and police to get rid of decrim because it’s causing more problems than it’s worth.
It’s becoming typical of the NDP government to back down on policies that don’t work only when they become a political hot potato. With decriminalization certain to be a major issue in the upcoming provincial election, this change in direction feels like it has more to do with political survival that realization that decrim has been a disaster.
One might also wonder why this new move comes so long after the B.C. Supreme Court granted an injunction against provincial legislation that would have accomplished what he’s trying to do now.
Yet, Eby is determined to hold on to it in some form, claiming that he’s simply doing good things for the public by putting restrictions on where drugs can be consumed.
Just a few days ago, the government insisted in the Ledge that tightening up on decriminalization wouldn’t save lives.
But with the election drawing ever closer, Friday’s move wasn’t unexpected. Sadly, though, it doesn’t go far enough.
Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Most governments “back down” when some things become political hot potatoes. Such action is not limited to BC’s NDP government. Witness Doug Ford (Conservative) backing down on green-belt development in Ontario. Or Justin Trudeau (Liberal) changing carbon tax for heating oil particularly in the Maritimes. Are not governments beholden to the people and (as much as politically expedient) respond to major opposition?
LikeLike
There’s been little input from our progressive champions since this announcement. I understand things might be difficult for them right now. Their entire world has come crashing down. What are some things we can do for them?
Meet them where they’re at.
Understand the comorbidity factors of wokeism and progressivism.
Check in with them down at The Loop – they may have resorted to self-medicating.
Lived experience of reformed progressives is essential.
Referral to counselling.
LikeLike
Let’s look at this ‘clear plan” that “BC United, under the leadership of Kevin Falcon, are prepared to take to “end the NDP’s reckless decriminalization experiment and ensure that hospitals are safe, drug-free environments where healthcare professionals can work without fear and patients can recover without exposure to harmful substances”
Hombre “let’s bring some law and order here” says BC United, but it’s essential to “follow the money” of who’s really gained…or you’ve ignored history. And I mean Mr. Falcon’s history. If Al Capone was alive today and a Canadian citizen, he would have been a member of the (Social Credit-Conservative- Liberal and now BC United) party of BC.
Let’s look at the history of Healthcare and Mr. Falcon. Some 20 years ago the Federal Finance Minister made drastic, unexpected cuts of $30 billion in federal transfer payments to provincial health care programs. Combined with this, the Liberal government in BC of which Kevin Falcon was a member introduced tax cuts, privatization of care facilities, laundry, and food which your dog would not eat, sale of assets, and outsourcing, and in the process, doubled the provincial debt. Sick relatives who for 4 months occupy a bed in the hospital now must go to Clearwater or Merritt to a care home if room is available. The cost of servicing this debt increased over time, thus leaving less and less money for health care and other government programs. This is Kevin Falcon’s legacy.
Rather than reforming the organization and functioning of the existing health care system such as the governance (IHA), budgeting, integration of nurse practitioners in patient care, use of generic drugs, record sharing, triaging wait times, and interdisciplinary team work, the BC government (Kevin Falcon) chose a quick fix. The fix was to increase user fees, privatization, hospital closures, and amalgamation of services, while parroting the “myth” that aging and a lack of privatization are the culprits of unsustainable health care. The other culprit is the bureaucracy where managers in all areas of governance use the public sector as an ATM machine while providing a Band Aid of ideas.
Decriminalization is a crisis in BC because the other provinces have not followed and decriminalized resulting in an influx of sick people onto our streets. For any problem in society, one must understand the cause of the problem in order to fix it.
Some suggest conscription into the army rather than a jail sentence might solve the petty crime and the street drug problem. How do you solve the parking, and access, in the RI hospital. You solve it by not creating it in the first place. Anything done for political reasons turns into a disaster. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves we are underlings”
LikeLike