B.C. Premier David Eby wants the use of vending machines to dispense free drug items and testing kits at three hospitals to be reviewed after a viral video from a Conservative candidate highlighted the vending machines that dispense them.
“That’s what I’ve asked the minister of mental health and addictions to have a look at to make sure that we’re meeting that expectation that I have, and that I think every British Columbian has,” Eby said at a news conference on Aug. 27.
Vancouver Island’s health agency introduced three “Care and Connection Kiosks” at hospitals in Victoria, Nanaimo, and Campbell River in October 2023.
Island Health said the vending machines offer community members an “innovative way to access free, life-saving, harm reduction supplies,” as well as information about mental health and substance abuse services and treatments.
The vending machines dispense free items such as glass pipes, cocaine smoking kits, naloxone kits, drug-testing kits, condoms, and syringes. Island Health said research has shown the vending machines can reduce overdose rates, decrease new HIV and Hepatitis C infections, and provide more naloxone and testing kits than in-person services.
Eby announced the review after BC Conservative candidate for Nanaimo–Lantzville Gwen O'Mahony posted a video to social media on Aug. 26 highlighting her concerns with the vending machines. In the
video posted to X, O'Mahony orders a crack inhalation kit and cocaine snorting kit from a vending machine outside Nanaimo Hospital.
“Unfortunately, the crack pipes were out, which is no surprise since crack pipes can be traded for drugs,” she says.
Since January 2023, B.C. has had in place a three-year pilot project that decriminalized possession of up to 2.5 grams of certain illegal drugs, including heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine. While supporters of safer
supply say the drugs have saved lives and prevented the spread of HIV, its opponents have pointed to people using them as currency to obtain more potent drugs.
Eby asked Health Canada on April 26 to amend the exemption order to decriminalize the use of those drugs in public spaces like hospitals, parks, and transit areas. “While we are caring and compassionate for those struggling with addiction, we do not accept street disorder that makes communities feel unsafe,” he said in a press release.
B.C.’s drug decriminalization policies have been criticized by local politicians, health-care workers, and police officers. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre
has also been critical of the policy and called for Parliament to hold an emergency debate on the issue.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
says B.C.’s decriminalization policies put the onus on a “public health response” to address the overdose crisis. “We’re going to continue to take an approach grounded in public health, not criminal justice, for people living with addictions,” he told reporters in May.
