BC Mental Health and Addiction Minister Sheila Malcolmson told reporters Wednesday that she had received an update on what “Health Canada has in mind” and that the decision is not final. BC has applied for an exemption to decriminalize the possession of small quantities of drugs, in a bid to reduce the stigma associated with drug use and help save lives. Drug users who buy over the counter risk being arrested and their drugs confiscated. Leslie McBain, co-founder of Moms Stop the Harm, said Malcolmson shared the update with a stakeholder group this week. “Everyone who is a lawyer is terrified of this,” McBain said. BC has called for a cumulative 4.5 gram limit on opioids, cocaine and methamphetamine, but McBain said the federal government is considering a cumulative limit of 2.5 grams. The office of Carolyn Bennett, the federal minister for mental health and addiction, said the decision had not been made. “We continue to work closely with all applicants throughout the review process. No decisions have been made on these requests as they remain pending,” Bennett’s office said in a statement Wednesday.
“The goal is still to punish people”
The county’s originally proposed limit was based on data presented by drug users, Malcolmson said in a recent interview. The cumulative 4.5 gram limit was already too low for many drug users, McBain said. Donald MacPherson, director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition’s defense team, reiterated McBain’s concerns. Setting appropriate limits is important because tolerance levels among drug users are higher due to the increased presence of fentanyl in the drug market, MacPherson said. “If the thresholds are too low, it exposes them to increased police surveillance, exposing them to having to buy smaller quantities and thus accessing the illegal market more often,” he said. Making the limit cumulative means that the limit counts for the total amount of drugs in its possession, instead of the limit that exists for each substance separately. The cumulative 2.5 gram limit also reduces the realities and needs of people who use drugs, as they often use multiple types of drugs on a regular basis, McBain said. “Sometimes they use what they can get.” “We are in the sixth year of the worst drug toxicity and death crisis the country has ever seen,” McPherson said. “There is an urgent need to proceed with this kind of policy change.” McBain said she wanted to know what would be achieved by setting the limit so low. “The goal is still to punish people for having access to what they need. And the only way they can get what they need right now is to go to the drug market,” he said.
