Addictions Minister Questioned About Opioid Decriminalization in BC by Health Committee

Methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine from a safe supply being handed out to drug users to mark International Overdose Awareness Day are displayed in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, on Aug. 31, 2021. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

Conservative MPs on the House of Commons health committee questioned Minister of Health and Addictions Ya'ara Saks on Feb. 1 about her government’s drug policies in light of Canada’s opioid epidemic.

The federal cabinet gave a green light one year ago to B.C.’s proposal for a three-year pilot project decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs. During the first five months of decriminalization, addiction-related fatalities rose 7 percent in B.C., said the BC Coroners Service.

By the end of the year, 2,511 deaths from illicit, toxic drugs had been recorded. The average of almost seven fatalities a day is the highest yearly death rate ever recorded by the agency and up 5 percent from the previous year.

B.C.’s Chief Coroner, Lisa Lapointe, stated in a release dated Jan. 24, “This crisis, driven primarily by unregulated fentanyl, has cost our province dearly in the loss of much-loved and valued members of our communities.”

At the Feb. 1 meeting, committee vice chair and Conservative MP Stephen Ellis began the questioning by asking about B.C.’s three-year pilot project that started last year with decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA, heroin, fentanyl, and morphine.

“People are dying every day … Everybody here knows it. Everybody across the country knows it. When will you decide to end this dangerous experiment?” Mr. Ellis said.

The minister replied, “My answer is that we will never stop providing medical health care services and interventions to those who use drugs and substances.”

Conservative MP Laila Goodridge took up questioning, saying to Ms. Saks, “On Sept. 26, in Question Period, you said decriminalization was the first step.”

Ms. Goodridge then asked, “What’s the second step?”

“Harm reduction,” answered Ms. Saks. “There is prevention, there is harm reduction, treatment, then recovery.”

Decriminalization, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery are steps Ms. Saks’s predecessor, MP Carolyn Bennett, promoted in support of B.C.’s decriminalization project.

In a follow-up, Ms. Goodridge asked, “Have you had any conversations about legalizing drugs like heroin, cocaine, and meth?”

“The decriminalization program is not about legalizing illicit drugs,” responded Ms. Saks.

“The decriminalization program pilot project that was requested by the B.C. government is about reducing stigma—those who are in personal possession to be able to access medical services and interventions,” she said. “Every loss of life is one too many.”

Last summer, the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU) published a report titled Fentanyl Tablet Prescribed Safer Supply Protocols. The BCCSU is supported by the B.C. government and the non-profit PHS Community Services Society (formerly the Portland Hotel Society, which in 2003 opened InSite, North America’s first legal supervised injection site, in Vancouver). The report says the protocols were adapted from PHS Community Services Society’s “Fentanyl Tablet Policy.”

Despite the absence of evidence backing the BCCSU proposal, it justifies its recommendations on “the clinical experience and policies at” PHS Community Services, AVI Health and Community Services, which operates an “overdose prevention site“ in Victoria, the Victoria SAFER Initiative “safer supply program,” and InSite.

The document lays out a plan for the provincial government to distribute a “safe” fentanyl supply to adults and minors under British Columbia’s Access to Prescribed Safer Supply policy, a development first highlighted in December 2023 by journalist Adam Zivo for a MacDonald Laurier Institute report entitled RECKLESS: British Columbia’s “safe supply” fentanyl tablet experiment.

The document does not specify a need for parental approval or establish a minimum age criterion. It adds that for “participants who are youth age <19 years, two-prescriber approval is strongly recommended.”