She didn’t say she told them so — although she most certainly did.Alberta Premier Danielle wasn’t gloating over the decision by the government of British Columbia to backtrack on key parts of its drug legalization policy on Friday.And in fact, Smith said she regretted that it had gotten so bad that her counterpart, David Eby, was forced to recriminalize drug use in public spaces.Smith said reports that addicts were using in hospital wards was likely the final straw. And she vowed it won’t happen here.“I think it's unfortunate that the that it had to come to the point that it did for them to realize that it's gone too far. Frontline nurses were experiencing terrible working conditions. I think that was probably the catalyst. They realized that having opened drug use in parks and playgrounds was was not appropriate,” she said.“In Alberta we have a recovery oriented system of care. We believe recovery is possible and it should be what we're aiming for.”.We hope that helps to stem the tide of these drugs going into the market, but I don't know that anything else so far is going to stop that problem.“Premier Danielle Smith.On Friday, BC’s Eby said he had little choice but to ask the federal government to make exemptions to its policy of exempting the province from the criminal code to make public drug consumption illegal in places like bus stops — indeed, buses themselves — the beach, parks and schools, coffee shops and even maternity wards. It came after an uproar from ordinary people who simply didn’t feel safe in public spaces. Dozens of municipalities wrote letters demanding an end to decriminalization.Although the NDP government’s steps don’t quite go that far, it marks a significant backtrack in what was supposed to be a three-year pilot program.Instead of going down, BC overdose deaths hit a record high last year and there’s a palpable sense of frustration that the government’s so-called ‘harm reduction’ approach is instead, causing more harm.More than 15,000 people have died since the government declared a public health emergency five years ago, including 2,500 last year alone..Alberta’s numbers also remain stubbornly high — more than 1,800 in 2023 accouring to the last statistics. That’s because Smith has previously said Alberta and BC are essentially an “integrated” drug market with ‘safe-supply’ dope being diverted by organized crime into cities like Calgary and Edmonton.“We're watching what's happening in BC. We hope that helps to stem the tide of these drugs going into the market, but I don't know that anything else so far is going to stop that problem. So it remains an active concern for us,” she said.
She didn’t say she told them so — although she most certainly did.Alberta Premier Danielle wasn’t gloating over the decision by the government of British Columbia to backtrack on key parts of its drug legalization policy on Friday.And in fact, Smith said she regretted that it had gotten so bad that her counterpart, David Eby, was forced to recriminalize drug use in public spaces.Smith said reports that addicts were using in hospital wards was likely the final straw. And she vowed it won’t happen here.“I think it's unfortunate that the that it had to come to the point that it did for them to realize that it's gone too far. Frontline nurses were experiencing terrible working conditions. I think that was probably the catalyst. They realized that having opened drug use in parks and playgrounds was was not appropriate,” she said.“In Alberta we have a recovery oriented system of care. We believe recovery is possible and it should be what we're aiming for.”.We hope that helps to stem the tide of these drugs going into the market, but I don't know that anything else so far is going to stop that problem.“Premier Danielle Smith.On Friday, BC’s Eby said he had little choice but to ask the federal government to make exemptions to its policy of exempting the province from the criminal code to make public drug consumption illegal in places like bus stops — indeed, buses themselves — the beach, parks and schools, coffee shops and even maternity wards. It came after an uproar from ordinary people who simply didn’t feel safe in public spaces. Dozens of municipalities wrote letters demanding an end to decriminalization.Although the NDP government’s steps don’t quite go that far, it marks a significant backtrack in what was supposed to be a three-year pilot program.Instead of going down, BC overdose deaths hit a record high last year and there’s a palpable sense of frustration that the government’s so-called ‘harm reduction’ approach is instead, causing more harm.More than 15,000 people have died since the government declared a public health emergency five years ago, including 2,500 last year alone..Alberta’s numbers also remain stubbornly high — more than 1,800 in 2023 accouring to the last statistics. That’s because Smith has previously said Alberta and BC are essentially an “integrated” drug market with ‘safe-supply’ dope being diverted by organized crime into cities like Calgary and Edmonton.“We're watching what's happening in BC. We hope that helps to stem the tide of these drugs going into the market, but I don't know that anything else so far is going to stop that problem. So it remains an active concern for us,” she said.
