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Canadaof Pacific Ocean The coastal province of British Columbia is ending a three-year experiment in decriminalizing possession of small amounts of drugs.
British Columbia Health Minister Josie osborne The province will not seek to extend an agreement with Canada’s federal health agency that decriminalizes personal possession of small amounts of the drug, it was announced Wednesday.
Osborne said the three-year pilot project, which is due to end on January 31, aims to make it easier for people to come forward and seek help, but it “has not yet achieved the results that officials had hoped for”.
Oregon’s first U.S. drug decriminalization experiment ended in 2004, when possession of small amounts of hard drugs once again became a crime. oregon Vote to legalize it in 2020.
British Columbia’s decriminalization project begins in January 2023 after Health Canada granted British Columbia an exemption under the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
It initially allowed adults to possess up to 2.5 grams cumulatively of opioids, crack and powder cocaine, methamphetamine and ecstasy.
But in 2024, that exemption was modified to limit such possession to private residences and places where homeless people are legally sheltered, as well as designated health care clinics and overdose prevention, drug screening and supervised consumption sites.
Osborne said that with decriminalization ending, the government was focused on “strengthening ways to help people access timely, appropriate care”.
“We are building a more complete and comprehensive system of mental health and addiction care in British Columbia that includes prevention, treatment and recovery, harm reduction and aftercare,” she said in a statement.
In 2001, Portugal became the first country in the world to decriminalize the consumption of all drugs.