Decriminalizing Drugs in BC

Decriminalizing Drugs in BC

 Why did BC have to get permission to decriminalize drug possession?

• The CDSA – Controlled drug and substances act that prohibits drug use is a federal statute, which means it regulates what drug use is legal and illegal for all Canadians coast to coast.
• The federal government directs this and the RCMP and local police forces enforce it.
• If a province or region wants to have different rules for themselves, they need to either have alternate legislation or statute that deals with another aspect of the crime or seek permission to be exempt from certain portions of the federal legislation.
• BC has already done this with drinking and driving – our government increased the fines and processes for drinking and driving under the motor vehicle act and left it optional for the police to forward the charges to the crown for criminal charges under the federal criminal code. This took drinking and driving out of the courts, which helped with the backlog there, and gave real and immediate consequences to impaired drivers which in turn reduced the instances of drinking and driving over time.
• For this new drug decriminalization temporary test period, the BC government went a different route and sought permission from the federal government to exclude itself from the portions of the Act dealing with simple possession of certain controlled substances.

How will this change affect the legal community?

• The goal is to have a positive effect on every aspect of the legal community.
• Everything about drugs and criminality is interrelated and it is a big never ending circle.
• Starting with the police – if they are not busy investigating, chasing down, and arresting people with addictions who have small amounts of drugs on them, that frees up their time to deal with more serious crimes.
• The police administration is positively affected too – they are not processing paperwork for these minor but very frequent and voluminous arrests of people with drug addictions for the act of possessing small amounts of drugs.
• The holding cells and jails will have less need to monitor and deal with drug overdoses and withdrawal of people with addictions – they are not medics and this task has been a burden and probably not done with the best medical practices for all involved.
• The legal aid system will be less taxed without simple possession charges taking up an already overburdened file load.
• The courts themselves, sheriffs, and the court registry will have a decrease in matters to process and administer without simple possession charges being handled through the court.
• The bail officers as well will have a reduced file load without having to monitor and administer cases of simple possession.

As a homeowner, business owner, or taxpayer in our region, how might we see the benefits of this temporary policy?

• These resources, over time as charges of simple possession are phased out, will be able to devote the precious resources to the administration of justice for serious crimes.
• Crimes that affect the community, as opposed to simple possession of drugs, arguably those people are only hurting themselves. Also, people with addictions not in a constant loop of arrest, court, probation, and then arrest again are better able to reliably access resources that aid them in either getting well or at least not being in a transient state in the system.
• Any savings that come from the reduced pressure on the legal system can be redirected to addressing addictions, which in turn benefits every aspect of the community with any additional harm reduction services.
• The officers can better focus on crime reduction and investigation.
• This all translates to better service to the taxpayers for their own needs when the whole system isn’t tied up in dealing with simple possession, a crime whose the only victim is themselves.

What would be the measures of success for this temporary decriminalization?

• This is not a magic bean that is going to fix everything and a lot of people feel strongly that illegal drugs are a crime. This temporary decriminalization doesn’t change that – drug dealers will still be arrested and prosecuted.
• This measure is to reduce the amount of time, effort, and expense taxpayer-funded services like the police and courts will expend to arrest and process people with addictions when this loop has done nothing to stop people from their addictions.
• When the police can spend their time and resources stopping drugs from being made or sold when we see the big drug busts coming from the police having more time to do their jobs, that will be the measure of success.
• When a person with a family court matter isn’t bumped on their hearing day due to lack of court time due to the court being full up with criminal simple possession charges, that will be a measure of success.
• There are a host of measures of success in dealing with people with addictions themselves, but I am not qualified or knowledgeable on that topic. I can only comment on the effect on the legal system and the community because I am a lawyer, a business owner, and a taxpayer.

Having 8 months before it takes effect means/does for preparations. 

• I don’t see why this should take that long, other than the internal processes in government to draft and sign the paperwork to make the exemption law.
• How can a person with an addiction who holds a small number of drugs be a criminal today but not in 8 months?
• I hope that in 8 months will be spent changing the mindset of the professionals this will most affect – police not patrolling for drug users with small quantities of personal use drugs on them. Courts giving less onerous probation sentences so the persons with addiction can spend their time seeking treatment or support instead of missing court hearings and having arrest warrants for the police to have to deal with, and tying up the whole system again with no end in sight; start lightening the load on the system now so in 8 months it will be more seamless.