Canada responds to British Columbia drug crisis by decriminalizing narcotics

[JacksinPA]

Canada responds to British Columbia drug crisis by decriminalizing narcotics

The three-year experiment in British Columbia is set to begin Jan. 31 and will allow anyone 18 or older to possess up to 2.5 grams of drugs like opioids, coke, meth and MDMA/ecstasy for personal us…

nypost.com

A Canadian province ravaged by overdose deaths will stop arresting adults caught with small amounts of hard drugs in a desperate attempt to stem the fatalities.

The three-year experiment in British Columbia is set to begin Jan. 31 and will allow anyone 18 or older to possess up to 2.5 grams of drugs including opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA, also known as ecstasy, for personal use.

The Canadian government approved the plan Tuesday, with Dr. Theresa Tam, the country’s chief public health officer, tweeting, “Stigma and fear of criminalization cause some people to hide their drug use, use alone, or use in other ways that increase the risk of harm.”
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So it's an experiment that will end. Then the cops will arrest you.

 

[Schism]

This should cleanup the problem in a matter of days.

 

[anatta]

prohibition never, ever works. I'm libertarian so this is an EZ one

 

[noonereal]

This should cleanup the problem in a matter of days.

It won't clean it up but its a big step in the right direction.

 

[ttwtt78640]

Canada responds to British Columbia drug crisis by decriminalizing narcotics

The three-year experiment in British Columbia is set to begin Jan. 31 and will allow anyone 18 or older to possess up to 2.5 grams of drugs like opioids, coke, meth and MDMA/ecstasy for personal us…

nypost.com

A Canadian province ravaged by overdose deaths will stop arresting adults caught with small amounts of hard drugs in a desperate attempt to stem the fatalities.

The three-year experiment in British Columbia is set to begin Jan. 31 and will allow anyone 18 or older to possess up to 2.5 grams of drugs including opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA, also known as ecstasy, for personal use.

The Canadian government approved the plan Tuesday, with Dr. Theresa Tam, the country’s chief public health officer, tweeting, “Stigma and fear of criminalization cause some people to hide their drug use, use alone, or use in other ways that increase the risk of harm.”
==========================================================================
So it's an experiment that will end. Then the cops will arrest you.

Oddly, the age for buying beer in British Columbia is 19.

 

[smallvoice]

Canada responds to British Columbia drug crisis by decriminalizing narcotics

The three-year experiment in British Columbia is set to begin Jan. 31 and will allow anyone 18 or older to possess up to 2.5 grams of drugs like opioids, coke, meth and MDMA/ecstasy for personal us…

nypost.com

A Canadian province ravaged by overdose deaths will stop arresting adults caught with small amounts of hard drugs in a desperate attempt to stem the fatalities.

The three-year experiment in British Columbia is set to begin Jan. 31 and will allow anyone 18 or older to possess up to 2.5 grams of drugs including opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA, also known as ecstasy, for personal use.

The Canadian government approved the plan Tuesday, with Dr. Theresa Tam, the country’s chief public health officer, tweeting, “Stigma and fear of criminalization cause some people to hide their drug use, use alone, or use in other ways that increase the risk of harm.”
==========================================================================
So it's an experiment that will end. Then the cops will arrest you.

Well, THAT should immediately solve their drug crisis. I didn't know Canadians were so "woke".

 

[Moon]

Canada responds to British Columbia drug crisis by decriminalizing narcotics

The three-year experiment in British Columbia is set to begin Jan. 31 and will allow anyone 18 or older to possess up to 2.5 grams of drugs like opioids, coke, meth and MDMA/ecstasy for personal us…

nypost.com

A Canadian province ravaged by overdose deaths will stop arresting adults caught with small amounts of hard drugs in a desperate attempt to stem the fatalities.

The three-year experiment in British Columbia is set to begin Jan. 31 and will allow anyone 18 or older to possess up to 2.5 grams of drugs including opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA, also known as ecstasy, for personal use.

The Canadian government approved the plan Tuesday, with Dr. Theresa Tam, the country’s chief public health officer, tweeting, “Stigma and fear of criminalization cause some people to hide their drug use, use alone, or use in other ways that increase the risk of harm.”
==========================================================================
So it's an experiment that will end. Then the cops will arrest you.

Tax what you want less of and subsidize what you want more of.

 

[Ug make hammer]

Tax what you want less of and subsidize what you want more of.

Well sure. But taxing a product that is still illegal right up to consumer, isn't likely to work. You'd have to legalize and license dealers.

 

[Ug make hammer]

Apologies, @JacksinPA. I searched for "Canada" in thread titles but for some reason this thread didn't come up.

I started another thread on the same subject.

 

[Moon]

Well sure. But taxing a product that is still illegal right up to consumer, isn't likely to work. You'd have to legalize and license dealers.

Consider it a metaphor. Canada already has a lot of drug overdose deaths, so by allowing people to possess the drugs that are killing them with out legal repercussion, they appear to want more overdose deaths.

 

[craig]

Yes. Get the money and corruption out.

 

[ttwtt78640]

It won't clean it up but its a big step in the right direction.

Maybe not a big step, but it will lead to more unregulated ‘street drug’ sales and abuse.

 

[Jetboogieman]

Consider it a metaphor. Canada already has a lot of drug overdose deaths, so by allowing people to possess the drugs that are killing them with out legal repercussion, they appear to want more overdose deaths.

Absolute nonsense, your way of framing the entire thing is incorrect since it is neither taxing it, or subsidizing it.

Let me spell it out for you, prohibition, has failed, miserably, we spent untold billions every year on drug enforcement that fails miserably in its goals of stopping drug use and that is completely evidence everywhere you look.

Prohibition isn't the only issue at play, social stigma and lack of services/treatment options can be another and attacking methods of harm reduction such as needle exchange programs and safe injection sites is also a problem...

But prohibition doesn't work, never has worked, never will work and has not only not worked, it's actively made the problem worse.

 

[noonereal]

Maybe not a big step, but it will lead to more unregulated ‘street drug’ sales and abuse.

No, it would not.
It would lead to less violence and disease.

 

[Moon]

Absolute nonsense, your way of framing the entire thing is incorrect since it is neither taxing it, or subsidizing it.

Let me spell it out for you, prohibition, has failed, miserably, we spent untold billions every year on drug enforcement that fails miserably in its goals of stopping drug use and that is completely evidence everywhere you look.

Prohibition isn't the only issue at play, social stigma and lack of services/treatment options can be another and attacking methods of harm reduction such as needle exchange programs and safe injection sites is also a problem...

But prohibition doesn't work, never has worked, never will work and has not only not worked, it's actively made the problem worse.

Well, now we know who doesn’t understand what the word metaphor means.

If you’re okay with allowing people to possess dangerous drugs with no legal repercussions then you also support increased drug overdose deaths.

 

[Jetboogieman]

Well, now we know who doesn’t understand what the word metaphor means.

If you’re okay with allowing people to possess dangerous drugs with no legal repercussions then you also support increased drug overdose deaths.

Has criminalizing this behavior resulted in any positive effect?

No.

You look at jurisdictions like Portugal, while not perfect, shows a better path forward that emphasizes harm reduction rather than criminalization.

Do you believe alcohol should be illegal?

 

[Allan]

Canada responds to British Columbia drug crisis by decriminalizing narcotics

The three-year experiment in British Columbia is set to begin Jan. 31 and will allow anyone 18 or older to possess up to 2.5 grams of drugs like opioids, coke, meth and MDMA/ecstasy for personal us…

nypost.com

A Canadian province ravaged by overdose deaths will stop arresting adults caught with small amounts of hard drugs in a desperate attempt to stem the fatalities.

The three-year experiment in British Columbia is set to begin Jan. 31 and will allow anyone 18 or older to possess up to 2.5 grams of drugs including opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA, also known as ecstasy, for personal use.

The Canadian government approved the plan Tuesday, with Dr. Theresa Tam, the country’s chief public health officer, tweeting, “Stigma and fear of criminalization cause some people to hide their drug use, use alone, or use in other ways that increase the risk of harm.”
==========================================================================
So it's an experiment that will end. Then the cops will arrest you.

I'm pretty familiar through work of another 'experiment' in Vancouver - the safe injection sites. That initiative was run by Vancouver Coastal Health and was designed to be a 'harm reduction' approach to the problem of drug addiction. The government supported the initiative by taking the attitude that addiction is a health care problem and addicts should be treated as patients.

The harm reduction bit of this is that the average cost of treating addict's diseases (caused by shared needles) is about 60K per patient. The safe injection sites provided clean needles and instruction on how to use them. They are staffed by a nurse who is also able to provide information and referrals to addiction treatment programs.

The initiative was successful and is being copied in a number of places (including San Francisco).

This latest initiative follows the same philosophy - the addict is a patient, not a criminal.

 

[ttwtt78640]

No, it would not.
It would lead to less violence and disease.

How, exactly, does buying ‘street drugs’ lead to less violence and disease?

 

[noonereal]

How, exactly, does buying ‘street drugs’ lead to less violence and disease?

Read the studies and look at the results from countries that have done so.

I am not your personal Google machine.

I have advocated this for decades.

 

[Schism]

It won't clean it up but its a big step in the right direction.

 

[ttwtt78640]

Read the studies and look at the results from countries that have done so.

I am not your personal Google machine.

I have advocated this for decades.

OK, so you have no idea despite having “advocated this for decades”, yet believe other (unnamed, of course) countries which allow buying and possessing unregulated ‘street drugs’ saw reduced violence and disease.

 

[Bear5131]

prohibition never, ever works. I'm libertarian so this is an EZ one

Needles park didn't work out to swell

 

[noonereal]

OK, so you have no idea despite having “advocated this for decades”, yet believe other (unnamed, of course) countries which allow buying and possessing unregulated ‘street drugs’ saw reduced violence and disease.

This is common knowledge that goes back decades. I have no appetite to prove anything to anyone so unaware.

If you have serious interest, you'll find all the evidence as common sense does not seem adequate.

 

[noonereal]

Needles park didn't work out to swell

In point of fact. It does.

 

[Integrityrespec]

No, it would not.
It would lead to less violence and disease.

BS. You keep degrading society and allowing all forms of decadence it's not going to improve society. You endanger more people, you will see more drug addiction that liberals will want to pay for their threatment. It's insanity.