Fort St. John mayor calling for end to BC's drug decriminalization program

FORT ST. JOHN -- The mayor of Fort St. John is joining growing opposition from across British Columbia to end the province's controversial illicit drug decriminalization program.

The three year pilot, a first in Canada, launched last year and saw the province receive approval from the federal government to allow adults be in personal possession of up to 2.5 grams of illegal drugs.

Mayor Lilia Hansen says she can appreciate what the province is trying to do to help people struggling with addiction, but the issue has underlining complexities that are going unaddressed.

"We don't want to stigmatize anyone, but we have to think about our entire community and their safety," said Mayor Hansen. 

The mayor says she's heard from residents that drugs and paraphernalia are being found in city parks and along community trails.

“I do not believe that the decriminalization is working and it's because of what I'm seeing and what I'm hearing-- I have the advantage in my role to receive the information from our residents, from our business community, and as well as getting the reports from the RCMP,” said Hansen.

Although Hansen doesn’t agree that decriminalization is what's best for the safety of residents, she sympathizes with those struggling with addiction, adding that more health resources need to be in place to address drug overdoses and to save lives.

“What resources do we have to help save lives in addition to what they're trying now?” Asked Hansen.

"I appreciate that the B.C. government is trying this new pilot project that the federal government gave them the authority to do… I don't agree with it," said Hansen.

The sentiment is shared by staff sergeant with the Fort St. John RCMP Scott Watson.

Watson says the force recognizes addiction as a health issue, but decriminalization alone is not the answer.

"There has to be robust resources put into treatment, safe use sites-- where somebody can go and use their drug of choice safely," said Watson.

Currently, under the legislation, there is nothing RCMP can do to address public drug use.

Watson says since Crown Council wasn't laying possession charges to begin with, at this point, re-criminalizing drugs won't change much.

“I didn't think the decriminalization was going to change much because I hadn't seen the B.C. Prosecution Service lay a possession alone charge in years-- and I don't think you could find a single person in Canada that was serving time for possession alone,” said Watson.  

The Fort St. John detachment used to house a dedicated drug and crime reduction unit but they have now blended into a single unit that perform both duties, according to Watson.

Watson couldn’t speculate whether decriminalization has played a role in statistics that show people are still dying from opioid overdoses since the program launched.

"Within the first year of decriminalization, the province suffered its highest amount of drug related overdoses or drug related deaths," said Watson.

Premier David Eby continues to defend the program, he says the province is just trying to keep people alive.

"We have attempted to put in place a system that recognizes some of the impacts we've seen on the ongoing toxic drug crisis that we're in, including public drug use by some individuals and we're not going to let it go,” said Eby.

The mayor said today that the city will continue to advocate for more resources from higher levels of government given what she's heard from community partners like the Salvation Army and Women’s Resource Society.

Since the toxic-drug crisis was declared a public health emergency on April 14, 2016, more than 14,000 people in British Columbia have died.