First Oregon, now B.C.: Why drug decriminalization faces renewed questions

Drug addiction researchers and advocates for a comprehensive, health-based approach say decriminalization needs time to work, and only with connected supports.

Last September, as Oregon faced an ever-increasing rate of fatal drug overdoses, a new study concluded the state’s first-in-the-U.S. decriminalization policy was not to blame.

The study found that based on similar overdose rates in other states before and after the first year of decriminalization, overdose deaths in Oregon would have risen at essentially the same rate with or without the policy.

By then, however, it seemed minds were made up. The move to decriminalize personal possession of hard drugs — enacted in early 2021, after voters approved a ballot measure the previous November — had coincided with a rise in public drug use and overdoses fuelled by toxic fentanyl, sparking a public backlash. Meanwhile, the policy’s effort to replace criminal citations with a push toward treatment saw fewer people take advantage of services that were still ramping up to respond to the growing need.

Six months after the study was published, Oregon lawmakers passed new legislation that rolled back decriminalization. Starting Sept. 1, possession of small amounts of drugs will be illegal once again.

Drug addiction researchers and advocates for a comprehensive, health-based approach to the overdose crisis in North America are lamenting the collapse of the Oregon experiment. They also fear a similar situation is playing out in British Columbia, which is facing calls to scrap its decriminalization pilot project as it, too, faces spikes in public drug use and overdoses.

At the same time, the impacts of public drug use and overdoses on downtown cores and communities have spurred safety concerns and discussions about how to balance the roles of police and addiction workers in responding to public safety calls.

Those in favour of keeping the project say decriminalization can still work as part of a multifaceted response to addiction as long as it’s given the necessary time, support, and compassion to do so. They’re urging policymakers not to give up too soon.

“If you work in the cardiology wing and somebody dies, nobody thinks of closing the cardiology wing,” said Eugenia Oviedo-Joekes, a University of British Columbia professor and the Canada Research Chair in Person-Centered Care in Addiction and Public Health. “But when you talk about drugs … people go into fear mode and push it back into the shadows.”