Federal government grants B.C.'s request to recriminalize hard drugs in public spaces

The federal government is granting British Columbia's request to recriminalize hard drugs in public spaces, nearly two weeks after the province asked to end its pilot project early over concerns of public drug use.

The federal government is granting British Columbia’s request to recriminalize hard drugs in public spaces, nearly two weeks after the province asked to end its pilot project early over concerns of public drug use.

Mental Health and Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks made the announcement Tuesday on Parliament Hill.

“We have said yes, and it is effective immediately,” Saks told reporters.

B.C. is little more than a year into a three-year pilot project to decriminalize the possession of a small amount of certain illicit drugs, including heroin and cocaine.

But citing safety concerns from public consumption of those drugs, the B.C. government asked the federal government on April 26 to make illicit drug use illegal in all public spaces, including in hospitals, on transit and in parks.

Saks said the issue is a “health crisis, not a criminal one,” but that “communities need to be safe.”

According to a statement from Saks’ office, exemptions in the Criminal Code for possession of small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use will still apply in private residences, certain health-care clinics, places where people are lawfully sheltering, and overdose prevention and drug checking sites.