Feds will keep working with BC on 'science-based, compassionate' drug decriminalization project: Trudeau

Justin Trudeau has told British Columbians he wants to continue working with the province on its “science-based, compassionate” drug decriminalization pilot.

It comes as the program – which began last year after Health Canada granted BC a three-year exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act – faces criticism from numerous quarters.

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre said this year the project had created “hell on earth” and called for recriminalization, while BC United Leader Kevin Falcon branded the pilot “disastrous” and said people with “untreated, severe mental health” problems should be "involuntarily" put in institutions.

Earlier this week, Vancouver Police Department's deputy chief, Fiona Wilson, said BC is not better off since decriminalization, adding that about half of all hydromorphone pills recently seized by police have come from the province’s “safer supply” scheme.

BC’s Mental Health and Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside, meanwhile, has said abandoning the decriminalization project won’t save “a single life.”

Speaking at the University of Victoria today, the prime minister said his government is “taking a science-based, compassionate and rigorous approach to the opioid epidemic.”

He added: “We worked with BC on a pilot project to create a framework to support the approach that we’re doing right now … and we’ll continue to work very, very closely with them on making sure that it’s working right.

“There’s been questions around reselling of drugs – of course, reselling drugs is illegal, and we need to make sure the police have tools to go after that. But we’re also going to make sure that we’re monitoring carefully to ensure that this project is working, that it’s keeping people safe, that it’s moving forward in a thoughtful, science-based approach that is grounded in compassion and treatment.

“And we’re going to continue working thoughtfully with BC as they manage the way this program unfolds.”

Last year, a record-breaking 2,511 people died from drug overdoses in the province.

Close to 14,000 have died since the public health crisis was declared in 2016.

Lisa Lapointe, BC’s last chief coroner, blamed 2023’s catastrophic death toll on the super-strength opioid fentanyl. She said most people who died were men aged between 30 and 59.

Trudeau said “everyone wants the same thing” from the crisis, which is “better outcomes, fewer deaths, a decrease in crime.”

He added: “This is a challenging situation that requires innovative responses, and figuring it out as we’re delivering these programs that are helping people is something we’re going to do in partnership [with BC], it’s not an adversarial position.”