Newton’s Third Law states that for every action there is an opposite reaction.Vancouver saw a 76% reduction in the number of drugs busts in 2023 — the first year possession was decriminalized — even as BC recorded the highest number of drug deaths in the province’s history.According to the province’s Coroner’s Service 644 people died in Vancouver alone compared to 578 the year before and just 80 in 2013. That amounted to about a quarter of all drug deaths in the province last year, the vast majority presumably for small amounts..“We don’t support putting people in jail simply because they use drugs or struggle with substance-use disorder. We believe that the decriminalization pilot is an important part of a larger strategy that is required to respond to the ongoing crisis,”Inspector Phil Heard.And yet Insp. Phil Heard, head of the Vancouver Police Department’s drug unit, was boasting on Tuesday that his department made absolutely no arrests for simple possession of any drug — cocaine, fentanyl, heroin and meth — under 2.5 grams through the first nine months since decriminalization came into effect on January 31 of last year.All drug possession seizures, regardless of weight — presumably including kilos — dropped 76% compared with the previous four-year average for the same time period.At a press conference, Heard said the VPD believes in a ‘health-led’ approach to the NDP government’s self-declared ‘overdose crisis’ that has taken 14,000 lives since it was declared in 2016. All front-line officers took part in online training before the pilot and all new recruits are required to do the same..“Alberta has been warning for years that diversion of high-potency opioids from these programs could be diverted and trafficked across Canada, potentially causing irreparable harm and death in communities across the country,”Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.“We don’t support putting people in jail simply because they use drugs or struggle with substance-use disorder. We believe that the decriminalization pilot is an important part of a larger strategy that is required to respond to the ongoing crisis,” he said in a news release Tuesday.“Thankfully, the Health Canada exemption has eliminated these requirements.”The department said it is also a “leading advocate” for the safe supply of substances to help reduce deaths from toxic street drugs when combined with prevention and enforcement — the same drugs Alberta Premier Danielle Smith complained on March 8 are winding up on the streets of Edmonton and Calgary.“Alberta has been warning for years that diversion of high-potency opioids from these programs could be diverted and trafficked across Canada, potentially causing irreparable harm and death in communities across the country,” Smith said.“In Alberta, we have made the provision of ’safe supply’ illegal to prevent this very thing from happening. Unfortunately, that does not stop organized criminals from bringing it here illegally from other provinces.”
Newton’s Third Law states that for every action there is an opposite reaction.Vancouver saw a 76% reduction in the number of drugs busts in 2023 — the first year possession was decriminalized — even as BC recorded the highest number of drug deaths in the province’s history.According to the province’s Coroner’s Service 644 people died in Vancouver alone compared to 578 the year before and just 80 in 2013. That amounted to about a quarter of all drug deaths in the province last year, the vast majority presumably for small amounts..“We don’t support putting people in jail simply because they use drugs or struggle with substance-use disorder. We believe that the decriminalization pilot is an important part of a larger strategy that is required to respond to the ongoing crisis,”Inspector Phil Heard.And yet Insp. Phil Heard, head of the Vancouver Police Department’s drug unit, was boasting on Tuesday that his department made absolutely no arrests for simple possession of any drug — cocaine, fentanyl, heroin and meth — under 2.5 grams through the first nine months since decriminalization came into effect on January 31 of last year.All drug possession seizures, regardless of weight — presumably including kilos — dropped 76% compared with the previous four-year average for the same time period.At a press conference, Heard said the VPD believes in a ‘health-led’ approach to the NDP government’s self-declared ‘overdose crisis’ that has taken 14,000 lives since it was declared in 2016. All front-line officers took part in online training before the pilot and all new recruits are required to do the same..“Alberta has been warning for years that diversion of high-potency opioids from these programs could be diverted and trafficked across Canada, potentially causing irreparable harm and death in communities across the country,”Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.“We don’t support putting people in jail simply because they use drugs or struggle with substance-use disorder. We believe that the decriminalization pilot is an important part of a larger strategy that is required to respond to the ongoing crisis,” he said in a news release Tuesday.“Thankfully, the Health Canada exemption has eliminated these requirements.”The department said it is also a “leading advocate” for the safe supply of substances to help reduce deaths from toxic street drugs when combined with prevention and enforcement — the same drugs Alberta Premier Danielle Smith complained on March 8 are winding up on the streets of Edmonton and Calgary.“Alberta has been warning for years that diversion of high-potency opioids from these programs could be diverted and trafficked across Canada, potentially causing irreparable harm and death in communities across the country,” Smith said.“In Alberta, we have made the provision of ’safe supply’ illegal to prevent this very thing from happening. Unfortunately, that does not stop organized criminals from bringing it here illegally from other provinces.”
