Vancouver wants to decriminalise possession of many hard drugs

AS A STUNT, it took some beating. A Vancouver city councillor joined activists outside a police station on July 14th to distribute free heroin, meth and cocaine. These “safe” samples of illicit drugs, the councillor tweeted, could save users from a poisoned street supply that has caused an overdose crisis on Canada’s west coast.

If the measure seems desperate, it suits the moment. The health officer of British Columbia (BC), where Vancouver is located, declared an emergency over deaths from drug overdoses five years ago. Dealers were lacing street drugs with lethal levels of fentanyl, a cheap and potent opioid. BC’s rate of illicit-drug deaths has more than doubled since then, with around 2,000 people dying from overdoses in the year to May—more than those killed by covid-19. “It’s really stretched all our traditional policy responses,” says Kennedy Stewart, Vancouver’s mayor. The pandemic appears to have worsened the crisis, since deaths are more likely if users inject alone.

So in May, Vancouver submitted a proposal to exempt it from Canada’s drug laws. It would decriminalise possession up to defined personal limits: two grams of heroin; three of cocaine; ten rocks of crack, for example. Drug prohibition deters addicts from seeking treatment, the request says, and criminal records make it hard to get a job. The...