Progressives love "harm reduction" which usually means "We will not prohibit drug abuse." 10/7/25 National Post:
Barely a year after B.C. Premier David Eby was still fiercely defending drug decriminalization as a critical means to save lives, he told a Vancouver crowd last week that the endeavour was a mistake.
“I was wrong … it was not the right policy,” Eby told a luncheon organized by the Urban Development Institute.
Following Eby’s swearing-in as premier in November 2022, one of his first major acts was to oversee the province’s decriminalization of personal-use possession of illicit drugs.
Starting on Jan. 31, 2023, drug users in B.C. no longer faced arrest or criminal consequences if they were carrying less than 2.5 grams of heroin, fentanyl, meth or any of the other illicit drugs covered by the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Police were not even allowed to seize the drugs of anybody injecting or smoking illicit drugs in a public place. Rather, law enforcement was to present them with “available health and social supports, as well as local treatment and recovery options.”
At the time, Eby’s government framed the measure as a means to remove the “shame and stigma” of drug use, and encourage users to consume drugs in communal or public areas where overdoses could be more easily attended to. “Given the increasingly toxic drug supply — using alone can be fatal,” Jennifer Whiteside, the province’s minister of mental health and addictions, said in a statement at the time.
“I was wrong … it was not the right policy,” Eby told a luncheon organized by the Urban Development Institute.
Following Eby’s swearing-in as premier in November 2022, one of his first major acts was to oversee the province’s decriminalization of personal-use possession of illicit drugs.
Starting on Jan. 31, 2023, drug users in B.C. no longer faced arrest or criminal consequences if they were carrying less than 2.5 grams of heroin, fentanyl, meth or any of the other illicit drugs covered by the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Police were not even allowed to seize the drugs of anybody injecting or smoking illicit drugs in a public place. Rather, law enforcement was to present them with “available health and social supports, as well as local treatment and recovery options.”
At the time, Eby’s government framed the measure as a means to remove the “shame and stigma” of drug use, and encourage users to consume drugs in communal or public areas where overdoses could be more easily attended to. “Given the increasingly toxic drug supply — using alone can be fatal,” Jennifer Whiteside, the province’s minister of mental health and addictions, said in a statement at the time.
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