Worked in Portugal

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I work in downtown Surrey, and ANYTHING to help welcome. We have so many deaths in that area.

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 80%. (I'm a bot)

> Ottawa - A Canadian province on Tuesday decriminalized the possession of small amounts of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and other hard drugs in a radical policy shift to address an opioid overdose crisis that has killed thousands.

> Kathryn Botchford, whose husband Jason died of a drug overdose in 2019, said she had no idea he'd even been using drugs.

> Canada has spent more than Can$800 million to try to stem the opioid crisis, including on addiction treatment, Naloxone supplies and opening 39 supervised drug consumption sites across Canada.

Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: drug^#1 addiction^#2 more^#3 health^#4 people^#5

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It’s British Columbia. Why not put it in the headline, cbs news?

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Legalize/decriminalize and regulate quality and age access (like everyone already does with alchohol, tobacco, and now marijuana).

Adults have the right to do whatever they want to their own bodies, just not to all the rest of us, of course. It is, after all, the very meaning of being an adult, right?

But most important educate them. Give a bottle of whiskey to a redneck...

Philadelphia next!

Do Philadelphia next!

How I view this is that the more you tell people not do something, they're going to want to do it even more. Some might even do it just to spite you.

So I can see this going in a positive direction weirdly.

Portugal also has mandatory treatment, however. Canada will not. There's little change in "help" for those that will use this system, Portugal has tons. So, im skeptical, but I suppose we'll see!

You know why

I hope it helps make it better, because it sure can't make it any worse.

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There's also the huge issue of getting people help. Understandably, when someone is in possession of illegal drugs, theyre going to be wary about getting help from a group that might have ties to the government. You decriminalize basic possession and it opens more of those people up to seeking help.

How it really helps is that people wouldn’t be afraid of reaching out for help and scoring these drugs wouldn’t be so dangerous. It would help people test for additives, seek mental/emergency services more readily, and help reduce the stigma around these substances. Instead of jail, those that are battling addiction would now be more free to talk about it in the open. I wouldn’t say people seek these substances out because they’re forbidden, but rather it’s almost always stress/pain/mental illness of some kind. Now we also need to add a ton of rehabilitative services that are low cost or covered by MSP.

Their "dissuasion commissions" made up of lawyers and social workers do not have the power to mandate compulsory treatment. They either recommend treatment or community service for addicts and if they refuse the commission can issue a sanction such a fine or taking away personal possessions.

Authorities can't forcibly drag addicts into treatment but once they voluntarily consent to treatment they have conditions for release, you can't just check yourself out any time if you have a history of overdosing. Apparently 85% of their addicts voluntarily agree to treatment when asked to by a dissuasion commission.

“Canada province”. Just say the name of the province.

They decriminalized possession, but kept the punishments for distribution. So drug quality will remain the same, similar number of people will likely use (if not slightly more that just feared the penalties), cops will return drugs to people rather than confiscating them, and the number of deaths will drop?! What?

If you're gonna decriminalize it, at least provide a safe source for it??

Very interested to see if this works.

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Canadian province declares hard drugs decriminalized in Philadelphia.

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One of the stated aims is to reduce stigma. But the stigma of these drugs keeps a lot of people from trying in the first place. If you reduce that, you may end up with lots of people with a more casual attitude who end up hooked.

I don’t think this will achieve what the provincial government hopes.

The Devil's Lettuce!

What a tragic outlook. These are people with stories of insurmountable difficulty, that are immensely complex, who need assistance in a failing system. It’s evident that you have very little experience with the nuanced grip of addiction, so please do not speak on it.

I feel really sorry for you, I live around this demographic of people and I know it comes with some challenges but it is easy enough to avoid.

These poor humans have gone through things you. Couldn’t even imagine and the worst day of their life is everyday and tomorrow. You have no idea what it’s like to be them.

Just lock them up and make them do labour until they're too tired to pickup a needle

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No one is doing a cost benefit analysis and saying "hey you know what? I should start doing heroin and live on the street, seems worth it." I hope that you or someone you love never finds themselves in that position it's not a life I'd wish on anyone.

It sounds like a medieval person talking to someone during their travels. "I come from Canada province."

Which Canadian province has decriminalized hard drugs? the answer will shock you!

Legalize all drugs.

Let people put what they want in their own bodies. My body my choice right? You respect bodily autonomy correct?

It's very clear yall don't want to make life bearable. The dropping birth rate tells me everyone understands this at some level. So let us get high instead.

Unclench your butthole for the first time in human history and end the war on drugs. Just fabricate a new excuse to be a fascist like you did when the war on drugs started.

You Won’t Believe

Thank you! You saved us!

You're... advocating for the death of homeless folks, and folks with mental illnesses and addiction issues?

Yikes. That's... wow, another level of inhumane.

Criminalizing self harm has always been wrong.

I get self harm extends outward when it gets big enough and then it’s a social concern.

So only criminalize to an extra extent the laws people do break when they’re messed up (and not every even very messed up person does horrible things while messed up - I don’t mean in the it hurts other peoples feelings that someone is messed up way and that does matter too for family and friends but is not criminal; I mean in the drunk driving/murder/child abuse thing)

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Unless the government regulated the distribution of the drugs. That way, usage may increase, but at safe dosage levels. People will know what they’re getting and that should reduce overdose deaths, right?

Disgusting sentiment.

Help is readily available for alkholism - and there are fuktons of folk around who are not interested/dont ant to take that up - and there is no stigma/offence attached to that.

How will this reduce deaths ?

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Why should society waste a penny on these losers?

The federal government has permitted the province to conduct this trial without any criminal penalties.

https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2023MMHA0005-000106

>Health Canada granted the Province of B.C. a subsection 56(1) exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to decriminalize people who use drugs. Beginning Jan. 31, 2023, until Jan. 31, 2026, adults (18 and older) in B.C. will not be subject to criminal charges if they possess a small amount of certain illegal drugs for personal use.

Here's the statement from the federal associate minister of Health

https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/news/2023/01/statement-from-the-minister-of-mental-health-and-addictions-and-associate-minister-of-health-on-the-implementation-of-the-subsection-561-exemption-.html

>On May 31, 2022, I announced the granting of a time-limited exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act for adults in the province of B.C. As of tomorrow, January 31, 2023, until January 31, 2026, adults aged 18 years or older within B.C will not be subject to criminal charges for the possession of small amounts of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine, and MDMA for personal use.

I know there's actual hard working families out there that could use help. Don't waste time or money on these dregs of society.

Looks how crazy it was during prohibition though. People were getting poisoned by alcohol. Pretty similar situation.

Probably so people don’t confuse British Columbia with Britain or Colombia

Oh you support spending tons of money on these people instead of actual hard working families? I'd say you have it backwards.

They should legalize it and regulate it, like alcohol or cigarettes. Taking a big chunk of the organized crime, gangs and violence out of the equation would be a huge public benefit.

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Portugal also improved access to treatment as part of decriminalization which BC isn't doing for this three year trial. Drugs have practically been decriminalized in the DTES for years already, this is just making it official province wide. Without improving access to treatment it's rather difficult to imagine this will have a positive impact.

They were getting poisoned by de-natured alcohol, how is decimalisation going to help this ? dealers are not going to stop cutting stuff with shit

But WHICH Canadian province declares hard drugs decriminalized In Philadelphia? Just say so in the headline!

They did with booze... I don't see anyone getting alcohol that's cut with kerosene... lol

Other countries have seen a lot of success with this method. I dont know Canada's and assume its similar.

The idea is to remove barriers to recovery as well as making it safe for people to consume.

Things like more pure drugs (not cut with anything dangerous), clean needles, lightening stigma, a support network, and doctors on site.

? this is just decriminalising drug use - not chaing how it is made available, dealers are still going to adulterate as much as ever.

This story comes from a newswire, specifically Agence France-Presse. I doubt anyone outside of Canada or the U.S. could name like 2 Canadian provinces or even know what British Columbia is.

The BBC (and other European news agencies) do stuff like this too for Canada all the time. It's bizarre as a Canadian, but understandable why.

Look at weed. Once decriminalization it starts getting monitored and safer ways to get the drugs are presented. I see what you are saying, but there are examples of this method having good results.

How will it enable more pure drugs ? [ I assume they already have a clean needle program - most places have] - thre is no mention of support network or doctors on sites. The Portuguese model works-ish because the users are persuaded to join a rehab. Once they are in rehab - they cannot leave/just sign themselves out

"What difference does it make? It's only a car ride away from Toronto" someone from England, probably.

Compulsory treatment is objectively ineffective and only serves to further a moral crusade against drug use. The vast majority of the social, economic, and health consequences of which arise from its stigmatization and a lack of regulation.

Even voluntary, motivated treatment has much poorer effectiveness than the vast majority of people seem to believe. The most effective treatment for opioid addiction, the global gold standard, is literally giving the individual stable daily doses of opioids to take in place of street opioids. The most effective opioid replacement therapies in terms of quality of life, socioeconomic functioning, and health outcome/preventing deaths are literally the more recreational opiates; buprenorphine < methadone < oral morphine < injectable hydromorphone.

Well they would have to supply it. IIRC Switzerland saw success with treatments like this, but Im not well versed in the details.

This won't change much of anything. For all intent and purpose drugs already were decriminalized. Either they were not charged or they were charged released and when the court case came up given unsupervised probation.

So no real change.

It works in Portugal because it’s a small country. Portland decriminalized hard drugs and there’s open drug use all over. It’s gotten significantly worse, and people flock here because they won’t get arrested. It’s only works if actual rehab and mental health facilities are available

"I hail from Canada province. If you're so inclined, I would like to trade these two goats and this fine Casio watch for your daughter, sir."

I hear they do a lot of trade with America state.

BC Government: "We're doing something!" while they continue to follow the same path that has made the Downtown East Side a dump for 30+ years. Ditto SF, Ditto Seattle. Failed ideology leads to failed outcomes.

they couldnt even get the demonym right

All recreational drugs should be decriminalized at the very least.