The government of British Columbia has announced that it will not be seeking an extension for the province's drug decriminalization pilot.Health Minister Josie Osborne admitted that the pilot "hasn't delivered the results that we hoped for.."After very careful consideration, we are not asking the federal government to renew the exemption," Osborne said during a press conference in Victoria on Wednesday. She maintained that "addiction is a health issue, not a criminal justice issue.".When asked whether people can expect law enforcement to start charging people for drug possession, Osborne said "the province does not direct police what to do," but noted that officers would continue to assist the government in their efforts.Ottawa granted British Columbia a temporary exemption to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use in 2023. At the time, the province celebrated it as a "critical step toward reducing the shame and fear associated with substance use."Over the past few months, Premier Eby and the BC NDP have acknowledged that the pilot did not work out as planned. .In October of 2025, for example, Eby admitted on stage at an event hosted by the Urban Development Institute in Vancouver that he was "wrong" on decriminalization..WATCH: Eby admits he was 'wrong' on drug decriminalization."I wasn't alone — but it wasn't the right policy," he said. "What it became was a permissive structure that, in the effort to reduce stigma that it was ok to use drugs anywhere, resulted in really unhappy consequences not just in British Columbia but other jurisdictions that attempted this.".In January, Eby explained that concurrent studies supported by public health officials at the provincial and federal level analyzing the impacts of decriminalization have been conducted."The intent is to release that data," he added.
