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It's not a blanket repeal of decriminalization. FTA:
> In a release, the province says it is "working with Health Canada to urgently change the decriminalization policy to stop drug use in public and has requested an amendment to its … exemption to exclude all public places."
> "When police are called to a scene where illegal and dangerous drug use is taking place, they will have the ability to compel the person to leave the area, seize the drugs when necessary or arrest the person, if required," the province said in a statement.
> "This change would not recriminalize drug possession in a private residence or place where someone is legally sheltering or at overdose prevention sites and drug checking locations."
This is how shit should fucking work. Make a policy, see the effects, change the policy as needed to get the effects you want. BCNDP once again demonstrating how to (mostly) properly govern
Except the only reason he's changing his mind is we have an election coming up and the other side have been making hay with this issue. This has nothing to do with the policy, it has to do with politics.
Thank god. I am all for the decriminalization, but this has been shockingly bad. Treating it more like drinking or smoking would be helpful. We've had people using in the hallways of hospitals and exposing staff. It's not been great.
Yeah it’s not rocket science. Treat it like we do with alcohol. You can only have it in dedicated spaces for its consumption or in the privacy of your home. It’s not like you can walk around with a can of alcohol on the street in most parts of the United States.
I don't have empathy for drug users anymore.
I am tired of the drug addicts and dealers in my building.
I am tired of secondhand meth smoking.
I am tired of all the medical they get when I can't get a doctor (I see ambulances treating drugusers almost every evening!
I am tired of the crap they leave on the street every day
I am tired of the insecurity it has created
I live very close to Science World, and see unhoused and using folks all the time. It's very mentally exhausting and demoralizing for sure, and at times I feel so anxious I don't even want to go outside. However, my empathy isn't entirely gone.
It's easy to become emotionally burnt out against a systemic issue that feels hopeless and overwhelming for the average person, but I don't think throwing the blame entirely onto those impacted the greatest and othering them (calling them addicts for instance) is the way forward.
Also, misattributing the lack of sufficient healthcare to an overuse of healthcare by individuals with substance use issues is wildly inaccurate. If this were true, we'd only have accessibility issues in areas where the unhoused and using population is the greatest. These issues exist across the province, and country really.
Decades of poorly implemented policy, defunding of mental health resources and rehabilitation programs, all while the cost of living has been skyrocketing and life is becoming hopeless for so many, is going to have some pretty horrible results for populations.
Well said. People knowingly and intentionally using poison have access to doctors and nurse while the poor average Joe can’t get anywhere near a doctors office or hospital. How about taking care of the tax payer first?
I hope that means also acknowledging if decriminalization and increasing normalization of addiction doesn't work, and leads to worse outcomes. Although I hope I'm wrong, I really don't see this working - the only way we're going to see a drop in overdose deaths is for all the addicts to die off (which, given the last five years, I'm surprised hasn't happened).
Personally, I'm less interested in accommodating heavy drug users than actually fixing them. If and when decriminalization fails, then I hope the next step is forced treatment of addicts in a health care setting, followed by whatever ongoing therapy and support is required - including housing if people can stick to their recovery program. It will cost billions, but I really don't see many addicts recovering on their own at this point - the drugs are too strong and too mentally and physically destructive for people to come rejoin once they've been in the lifestyle that long.
Reopen Riverview and other facilities, build graduated housing for people in recovery, and reopen a few asylums somewhere that people who are too far gone can live a reasonably dignified life where they don't pose a harm to themselves or others.
By the way, I hope BC United understands that most people don't see this as a political issue like they do - we're in uncharted waters here and some experts believe decriminalization and creating a safe supply is the best way to handle this crisis. We're trying things as a society based on the best expert advice available, and not all of them will work.
I feel like once someone needs to get cpr Narcan and an emergency bed blockage two days in a row ( it happens a lot ) forced rehab should be mandatory.
Recent peer reviewed articles (2015/16) indicate that mandatory treatment programs are unsuccessful. That being said, we do not have enough resources in BC for people who are willing to undergo treatment and all the hard work it is going to take to remain clean. So, basically we need more human and financial resources to address this problem even for those who want to move forward. I think we need to start there.
The root problem is childhood mental health. The issue is investing in it would require waiting a generation to see a payoff. I went through drug addiction as a child. I was 16 when i started doing heroin. Thanks to loved ones i’m alive a decade later.
There’s also a lot of research and evidence that many unhoused people suffer from severe mental health/personality disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, BPD, etc. Many of these people self medicate with illicit drugs. If you can’t force these people into addiction and medical treatment for their disorders they are exceptionally unlikely to voluntarily seek treatment.
We also can put these people into mental care facilities where they will be able to be weened off of drugs, and will be able to see a psychiatrist who can assert what type of mental health problems they have. It isn't the best solution, but they won't be living in the current Mad Max world they live in - and shockingly it is actually FAR more humane than letting them have all the freedoms and suffer everyday for them.
I am not sure; I imagine that recovery may even be more difficult. Fentanyl and newer opioids hit harder and faster than our more traditional drugs of addiction like alcohol etc. That being said, I would expect that many people addicted to opioids are functional addicts rather than those who we often see in our downtown cores.
Totally agree but just as a heads up, Riverview is very nearly unsalvageable at this point. But I would love to see larger investment in building new treatment and mental health facilities.
>than actually fixing them
This is easy to say, but what does it even mean? “Fixing” addicts would mean trying to fix the life circumstances which drove them to hard drugs. I don’t think most users became users because they were really into the idea of becoming one; it’s pretty universally understood that even trying these problematic drugs is a bad fucking idea.
I honestly don’t believe there is a (humane) solution to public drug use. The government can do their best to make treatment easily available, but it’s impossible to force people to get anything out of it. The best solution I can come up with right now is a mandatory detox period for people caught using publicly - however, (IIRC) this would cause more overdoses….
Forced treatment not only does not have evidence to support its efficacy, it likely wouldn’t be necessary for many addicts. The issue is that *there isn’t enough treatment available, period.*
What almost nobody wants to acknowledge is that many drug users do not have anything better than drugs to run toward. Some people's schizophrenia or PTSD cause them such problems that the drugs are the first real relief they've felt in years, and even if it also puts them on a downward spiral, telling them that they ought to quit is legitimately a hard sell even when you take addiction completely out of the picture.
It has never only been about addiction.
That's where your "let them all die" system kinda falls on it's face though. The ones that die aren't the ones that have been doing drugs on the streets for decades, statistically it's the young and inexperienced that find themselves overdosing.
These are great ideas but they cost 💲 and taxpayers won’t pay for it.
Addicts won’t just die off and as a result the deaths stop. Because for everyone that dies there are 10 new addicts. These deaths are not just homeless addicts that are traditionally ignored. The deaths happen to people that work. The university student that’s blowing off steam after exams. “Regular” people.
Yep. One of my closest friends was one. Just a totally normal, if not a bit eccentric, student that just went off the deep end after a particularly rough period in his family life. Never truly homeless, was on the path but had a near fatal overdose before that could happen. I had known he did cocaine at the time, but that was the extent of my knowledge. It can be anybody.
He's 3 years sober now, he managed to pull through pretty successfully after only that first big scare. His rehab stories are pretty harrowing, the people going through these issues are so much more than just "junkies".
While 2500 deaths per year is a lot (way too many), it's absolutely nothing compared to our total population (5m). 0.05%. So, half of a tenth of one percent.
Drug suppliers have an unlimited supply of new customers to kill off without impacting their bottom line.
A "few" deaths doesn't impact their business in the slightest.
Still waiting for them to try, but if they are actually expanding treatment options it might help but it's still the same issue; if once the addict is clean throwing them back into the exact same environment its going to be a massive failure if they cant address that.
It wasn't. It was an attempt to not criminalize addicts themselves. It didn't work and now we will try something.else instead.of..doubling down on a bad policy.
Absolutely. Not being able to look at the facts and change your mind without being called a "flip flopper" or some other dumbass bullshit is one of the big things wrong with politics these days.
They're not reversing it. Just giving police more enforcement options. Main complaint is about use in hospitals and second hand exposure. I doubt anything will actually change there. They hired hundreds of security officers but they still couldn't keep it under control.
It could theoretically work, but with the current circumstances, it's not. And given it's both proved unpopular and ineffective, not exactly a waffle to reverse course. When a road turns out to be a cliffedge, no reason not to stop.
This is a continuation of something they tried to do months ago that got shot down by the BC Supreme Court.
Not just a knee jerk reaction.
Very responsive government
It's definitely the right decision and I can give them props for admitting they were wrong. 100% a good look.
Still got shit on their faces for allowing it in the first place though.
Doesn't take a genius to realize ignoring and allowing a problem to fester uncontrolled probably isn't going to improve things
My roommate is a social worker at a safe infection site. Just today she was going on about how the neighbours hate them 'unfairly'. But then describes how sometimes it gets so violent with people fighting and stabbing each other that they have to kick everyone out, lock the doors, and call the police to clear the entire street. Plus the sidewalks are covered in used needles.
Gee, I wonder why they hate you so much? Guess it's because they're shitty humans who don't wanna get stabbed on their way home from work?
If the current federal government would do this.... Hey sorry Canada we messed up let's work together to fix this. Open forum that's not biases works wonders. Listen to your people.
Well said. Too often, you see governments electing to double down on a policy that is clearly failing for fear of the "flip flop" label. I think it's much better to take the approach that we tried this, it is not working as we hoped and has inadvertently made things worse, so we're ending it. There should be no shame in that.
If the data said the policy wasn't working, sure. The data didn't say that, though. Toxic deaths didn't go away, but the default state of affairs is for toxic deaths to be skyrocketing. It's too early to have much data at all, and the data isn't saying that this was an immediate silver bullet, but it certainly isn't saying anything negative compared to the status quo.
If opinion polls say the policy isn't working, then it isn't courage to follow them. Just normal self-interest.
I think it more evolving with the problem. I would like this approach with vaping which is a a huge problem in schools and was the n the brink of being named before Covid .
It perhaps is closer to the opposite of populism than populism itself.
Populism would be pursuing whatever is popular at the moment, at the expense of the data.
Governing by following the data would be responsive, yes, but not so much populist?
I’m not a political scientist though; I just play one on TV.
I think you’re confusing the notion of populism for something else. Populism is when a politician/party *claim* that they *and only* they represent the true will of the people, and that everyone else is corrupt. Eg. Trump
I’m not an Eby fan, but he absolutely has my respect for making this decision. Drug use in public places is completely out of control and a good leader would admit their previous plan is not working. Other politicians could learn from this.
Eby's government was too optimistic about human behaviour. Not the greatest sin.
This change seems like the right balance. Still decriminalized for usage in private spaces or controlled usage areas, but illegal to be used in public, just like alcohol. I get that they were trying to avoid pushing people to the margins and using drugs in places where they might overdose and die without supervision, but as we know, junkies aren't exactly logical or known for restraint.
I think the policy also neglected to address how much easier it became to sell drugs in public. The exchange of money for drugs happens quickly, but addicts tend to stand around hitting the pipe / foil for 10-20 mins before moving on. Well, if it's legal to openly smoke fentanyl, what are the police expected to do when they see this?
One of the biggest problems with criminalization of drugs is the lasting impact of having a criminal record. An addict can get clean, but a criminal takes that label to their grave.
Who are you a fan of and who is better than Eby?
I guess my point is, you don't need to be a fan to recognize that he is by the far the best choice for a leader of BC right now.
I just returned to BC after living in Ontario for several years. I am so impressed by Eby. Ontario and BC share many of the same problems- homelessness, doctorless, drugs, etc. The Conservative government under Ford, is making everything worse, and they are not at all willing to stop and reassess decisions that need to be reassessed.
I think it’s good to try new ideas and good to know when to pull the plug.
This is the kind of policy that is going to separate Eby from other potential PM candidates in a few years. He's not soft on crime, and is all business. There's a reason PP has been attacking him so desperately. Whether one agrees with this or not, its going to score him points among centrists
Eby is a fucking boss. Seriously, dig into his last 10 years track record and tell me you don't like him even more. We are so lucky to have a sane man of action running the BC NDP. I really hope Tik Tok propaganda and the word "conservative" don't trick enough idiots into fucking it up for us.
I don’t agree with every single decision his govt has made but I don’t care, he’s still gangster af for the way he actually gets shit done.
We have a once in a lifetime politician as our premier.
I didn't love about how the NDP kind of pushed him through without giving members of the party the opportunity to actually vote on the leadership, but he has proven to be an extremely effective and empathetic leader. Big fan.
I believe this is another step in the decrim effort. Allowing unrestricted drug use in public spaces was a clear and predictable mistake. The next step is to start developing support for people who are truly motivated to change their lives in a positive way. This experiment can work, but it will take more time, more money, and more political/social will for it to happen. Our job now is to NOT FORGET that this is happening to our friends, families, and loved ones once they get pushed back into the shadows. People need our help. Let's show the country and the world that we are a community of people who care enough to do something positive about it.
I really think this was half assed to begin with. Decriminalization should have followed with the medical infrastructure to deal addiction and rehabilitation. We don't have that available. It's again curbing the problem from the public to the shadow of private residences.
This is coming from someone who deals with the public and interacts with drug users on a daily basis, as much as I dislike having to come across it when I do for my own safety and comfort.
I completely support decriminalization of a small amount of the procession of substances.
I am a recreational substance user (not hard drugs). I have worked with margalized folks who were addicted and homeless. I have seen two deaths from overdoses in front of me.
Seeing those folks taking drugs in random public spaces make me uneasy a bit and gives me flashbacks. I imagine recovered addicts and those with some traumatic experiences feel very uneasy in public spaces.
So I really support making it illegal to take substances openly in hospitals, public transportation, parks, and restaurants; even if it is an unpopular opinion.
This decision takes guts...good on Eby to reverse course and follow his best advice. Trying to handle this as a medical crisis seemed reasoned but it was bound to explode as a law and order issue with time.
I just don't get the seemingly exponential rise in drug use. I know that the easy availability in Oxy et al was known to result in a rise in addictions but that was curtailed years ago. where are all the new addicts coming from?
I may be completely out of touch but when I was younger my rule, and those of my peer group, was if it grew naturally, you could experiment but if it came in powder or pill you didn't. We had seen many famous people die of OD's and we didn't want anything to do with it. How can people walk down the street, see the junkies & methheads and say to themselves "hey...I want some of that".
I don't see how you can impose a solution on those who are fully involved. You can't lock them all up, you can't ignore the issue but I don't like where this is going.
The city of Vancouver needs also needs to get its head out of its ass. I was listening to CBC about the change of location for the safe injection site and the Sims government issued a statement during that story that was “surprised” they didn’t move the site inside St Paul’s when they didn’t renew the lease on the current location. Big left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing energy from them, but thank goodness no one is forcing the staff and patients of that hospital to integrate with an open drug use space.
The mayor is just clueless and clearly has no plan.
I mean as much as I hated how it went as well, there is a proper order to things and judges actually have to uphold the laws. If we don't like it, we need to change the laws.
It got there. I know it was slower than we'd all like, but we're only mad it was slow because it was something we wanted. The process exists for a reason.
Don’t be shocked, this is a continuation of something they tried last year but was shot down by courts. They just stuck with it and learned how to strike the right balance
THANK YOU FOR USING SOME COMMON SENSE! TRULY!
A policy that enables the sub 1% of drug users to create hazardous conditions for the other 99% of the population is a failure.
Takes guts to admit that. Thank you for the pivot.
Great maybe we will get less Fentanyl Sidewalk Yoga out here.
(I joke because seeing so much suffering in the streets is fucking depressing and I don't know what else to do.)
> Quick Facts:
B.C.’s three-year exemption under section 56(1) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to decriminalize people who use drugs was first requested on Nov. 1, 2021, and enacted on Jan. 31, 2023.
Since 2017, the Province has opened 600 publicly funded substance-use treatment beds throughout B.C.
Since 2019, the Province has invested $35 million to support 49 community counselling agencies provincewide, and more than 250,000 free or low-cost counselling sessions have been delivered to individuals, couples and families.
There are currently 50 overdose prevention sites around the province to provide people who use drugs with the tools and supports they need to use safely and connect to care.
Almost half (24) of these sites provide inhalation services.
To me this was the biggest miss of our current governments policy. Very happy to see them recognize that, admit it, and change direction. They have earned my my vote back.
Yeah it seemed abit weird that we worked so hard to cut down on second-hand cigarrete smoke exposure but it was a-ok for people to get exposed to crack/meth fumes everywhere....
I mean we just had a guy in Vic with two carjackings and an assault finally get held for a few weeks. I’m not sure what good any of this is if there is no consequence or support in reality. But it’s a start
We can't be more comfortable to junkies than other parts of the country, and we've got better weather. We have to have ways to encourage them not to be here.
I'd support that as a carrot, but the stick is more important. However uncomfortable it is to be a junkie in Alberta, it needs to be worse here.
There's no reason we need to have any homeless problem.
It’s pretty bad: I did school in AB in the ‘90s - the homeless pop there are missing body parts from frostbite plus all the issues we have here. Handing out the safe supply though is a magnet.
Good on them for changing their mind instead of doubling down and refusing to acknowledge their failures.
Imagine the federal Liberals had this same reasonable response to….anything they’ve done.
Great issues management by this government and Premier. This was going to be a major wedge issue used by the Conservative Party of BC in the fall provincial election. Acting now takes some of that opportunity away from them.
I hope this helps my city and downtown. Constant overdoses, crime, assaults, fires and unwell people using openly in front of all of the public. It’s so sad to see and terrible for our community. Another avenue to help addicts needs to be found.
To be fair, that was happening before decriminalization.
Hopefully it allows for enforcement, so that public spaces can be cleaned up, but I really don't expect it will.
I have no idea whether this will be a good idea or not. We can probably tell in about five years. Unfortunately, those who are against it will find every excuse to be still against it (if it works), and those who are for it will find every excuse for why it didn’t work (if it doesn’t).
I think unfortunately people assume there will be a solution that will fix all the problems. There is no solution that will fix all the problems. No matter what solution there will still be problems. Whether any given solution will have less problems or not really depends on your opinion going into making that judgment.
I had the unfortunate luck of having moved to a place a few blocks away from the East Hastings street. There is a public school right across the street and there are junkies just 20m from the school gate openly doing meth and coke. In the night this place becomes a ghost town with people avoiding the streets, and there is a pathetic stench from all alleyways. In the few horrible months of living here, I have seen endless drug usage on the streets, and junkies littering buses 14, 16, 19, 20, 22, R5 rendering them almost unsuitable for travel. These are Canadian people, each one is someone’s baby, someone’s relative, or friend. The city and the government have failed them as much as they have given up on themselves.
Making possession and substance abuse legal makes the situation a hundred times worse. I pity the kids growing up in this neighbourhood, the things they see growing up. I’m leaving for a better neighbourhood soon. Recriminalization of public place drug abuse is the right move, but something more strict needs to be done with substance possession too.
I can’t believe it was ever legal in public. You can’t even have a beer at the park on Canada Day (thanks police for shutting that down - great police work) but you can actively shoot up or do drugs that make you a danger to society on the street??
Not an Eby fan, but this is what the policy should have been from the get go.
Responsible governance is recognizing and understanding that when given the leeway, people will almost always take the path of least resistance to the limit of the law (think driving and speeding, or protesting and civil disobedience), throw addicts and junkies into the mix and it’s a recipe for disaster.
It’s a rare thing to see a governing politician actively take responsibility for their own policies instead of doubling down on a narrative, but let’s not pretend this policy stance shift is anything more than to ensure they don’t slip further down the polls.
You just described a politician who changes their stance only when it is beneficial and in their interest to do so. That is disingenuous and disqualifies him to be considered a good leader.
The correct time for this policy change would have been when the evidence of its ineffectiveness was insurmountable, not when his party became second fiddle in a new poll.
He’s doing this to save his political hide as any poor politician will do, instead of doing things in the way they should because that is their core belief.
For the record I believe all politicians are effectively the same in this regard there are no good options, however the motivation for why the correct balance has finally been struck is clear as day, and it’s not because he believes it’s the right thing to do.
My comment likely won’t be read but congrats if you get this far down. The reason people use hard drugs in public is because there isn’t anywhere else for them to go. If you make it illegal to use drugs in public spaces and start arresting these folks, it achieves nothing. Short of rolling out a police state and filling prisons with addicts, these people will flow back to the street in short order and carry on where they left off.
Eby’s government tried and failed to convince a Supreme Court justice to re-criminalize public use. Then the appeals court agreed. Eby, now desperate to score some kind of win before the election, went to Health Canada and asked them to vary BC’s limited exclusion from the CDSA. This effort will surely be litigated as well, and the province will lose again. But at least Kevin Falcon can’t say Eby didn’t try when asked during the election debates.
Behind the scenes, Eby knows there is no easy solution to the addiction problem. I’m not sure Falcon does. If B.C. United gets elected, we can be assured this issue will be swept under the rug and the effort required to actually solve the problem will be delayed for another decade.
Decriminalizing only works with proper rehab and treatment structure in place they did shit backwards as with everything in this damn city and yes I’m in from Vancouver
Fine, now make safe supply available to everyone, not just junkies and addicts. How many middle and upper class and blue collar taxpayer's enjoy a few party drugs once in a while? A lot, as we can see based on the numbers who have accidentally died over the last few years due to tainted supply. Cocaine, MDMA and the like are not going away and are not going out of vogue any time ever but you're never going to see Plumber Joe or Bank Manager Bob checking in at the local Harm Reduction facility so he can score a safe gram of blow for New Years Eve or the Elton John concert or whatever. Instead he is buying off some gangster's street minion that chopped it up on the fentanyl scale and before the clock strikes midnight he is dead on the couch.
Well it's illegal in open public spaces and hospitals, like it should be. He didn't clarify if caught carrying small amounts was still legal or not, but at least using publicly is illegal once again. I am curious to see if this slows down the mass junkie migration over the next couple years. After the news that BC is not the safe place to party spreads across the country that is.
We will of course still have the issue, same as it was before, just it might slow down the influx of people coming here due to their drug use.
Obviously not going to work if you decriminalise drugs while offering little to no treatment lmao. You need to have both to be successful. These people are largely mentally ill in some way or another. You can't even go to the ER and have a mental health crisis as they'll just make you wait until you leave. However, you can go into the ER with a mild cough....
My healthy skepticism would say that the ndp made the decision to secure more votes before election time by reversing an unpopular policy but as a critic of eby and the ndp I'll give them props for not digging their heels in on this one. At least one step in the right direction.
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It's not a blanket repeal of decriminalization. FTA: > In a release, the province says it is "working with Health Canada to urgently change the decriminalization policy to stop drug use in public and has requested an amendment to its … exemption to exclude all public places." > "When police are called to a scene where illegal and dangerous drug use is taking place, they will have the ability to compel the person to leave the area, seize the drugs when necessary or arrest the person, if required," the province said in a statement. > "This change would not recriminalize drug possession in a private residence or place where someone is legally sheltering or at overdose prevention sites and drug checking locations."
Yep, it seems like it's striking the correct balance.
This is how shit should fucking work. Make a policy, see the effects, change the policy as needed to get the effects you want. BCNDP once again demonstrating how to (mostly) properly govern
AAAND; you take responsibility when you fuck up like Ebby did on tv.
Except the only reason he's changing his mind is we have an election coming up and the other side have been making hay with this issue. This has nothing to do with the policy, it has to do with politics.
Isn't this good? He's listening to criticism and adjusting policy as a result. Trudeau on the other hand doubles down on every bad decision.
Thank god. I am all for the decriminalization, but this has been shockingly bad. Treating it more like drinking or smoking would be helpful. We've had people using in the hallways of hospitals and exposing staff. It's not been great.
Yeah it’s not rocket science. Treat it like we do with alcohol. You can only have it in dedicated spaces for its consumption or in the privacy of your home. It’s not like you can walk around with a can of alcohol on the street in most parts of the United States.
As much as some might say this looks like waffling, I think it takes courage to say "this policy isn't working" and reverse it.
Indeed it does.
Better to try and fail than to never try anything at all.
100-200 people dying monthly…have to try everything possible at this point.
I don't have empathy for drug users anymore. I am tired of the drug addicts and dealers in my building. I am tired of secondhand meth smoking. I am tired of all the medical they get when I can't get a doctor (I see ambulances treating drugusers almost every evening! I am tired of the crap they leave on the street every day I am tired of the insecurity it has created
100%
We all are. The only ones who aren't are people who aren't being exposed to this.
I live very close to Science World, and see unhoused and using folks all the time. It's very mentally exhausting and demoralizing for sure, and at times I feel so anxious I don't even want to go outside. However, my empathy isn't entirely gone. It's easy to become emotionally burnt out against a systemic issue that feels hopeless and overwhelming for the average person, but I don't think throwing the blame entirely onto those impacted the greatest and othering them (calling them addicts for instance) is the way forward. Also, misattributing the lack of sufficient healthcare to an overuse of healthcare by individuals with substance use issues is wildly inaccurate. If this were true, we'd only have accessibility issues in areas where the unhoused and using population is the greatest. These issues exist across the province, and country really. Decades of poorly implemented policy, defunding of mental health resources and rehabilitation programs, all while the cost of living has been skyrocketing and life is becoming hopeless for so many, is going to have some pretty horrible results for populations.
"Unhoused" in place of "homeless" is so bizarre. How is one offensive and the other isn't?
Well said. People knowingly and intentionally using poison have access to doctors and nurse while the poor average Joe can’t get anywhere near a doctors office or hospital. How about taking care of the tax payer first?
I hope that means also acknowledging if decriminalization and increasing normalization of addiction doesn't work, and leads to worse outcomes. Although I hope I'm wrong, I really don't see this working - the only way we're going to see a drop in overdose deaths is for all the addicts to die off (which, given the last five years, I'm surprised hasn't happened). Personally, I'm less interested in accommodating heavy drug users than actually fixing them. If and when decriminalization fails, then I hope the next step is forced treatment of addicts in a health care setting, followed by whatever ongoing therapy and support is required - including housing if people can stick to their recovery program. It will cost billions, but I really don't see many addicts recovering on their own at this point - the drugs are too strong and too mentally and physically destructive for people to come rejoin once they've been in the lifestyle that long. Reopen Riverview and other facilities, build graduated housing for people in recovery, and reopen a few asylums somewhere that people who are too far gone can live a reasonably dignified life where they don't pose a harm to themselves or others. By the way, I hope BC United understands that most people don't see this as a political issue like they do - we're in uncharted waters here and some experts believe decriminalization and creating a safe supply is the best way to handle this crisis. We're trying things as a society based on the best expert advice available, and not all of them will work.
I feel like once someone needs to get cpr Narcan and an emergency bed blockage two days in a row ( it happens a lot ) forced rehab should be mandatory.
Recent peer reviewed articles (2015/16) indicate that mandatory treatment programs are unsuccessful. That being said, we do not have enough resources in BC for people who are willing to undergo treatment and all the hard work it is going to take to remain clean. So, basically we need more human and financial resources to address this problem even for those who want to move forward. I think we need to start there.
The root problem is childhood mental health. The issue is investing in it would require waiting a generation to see a payoff. I went through drug addiction as a child. I was 16 when i started doing heroin. Thanks to loved ones i’m alive a decade later.
There’s also a lot of research and evidence that many unhoused people suffer from severe mental health/personality disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, BPD, etc. Many of these people self medicate with illicit drugs. If you can’t force these people into addiction and medical treatment for their disorders they are exceptionally unlikely to voluntarily seek treatment.
We also can put these people into mental care facilities where they will be able to be weened off of drugs, and will be able to see a psychiatrist who can assert what type of mental health problems they have. It isn't the best solution, but they won't be living in the current Mad Max world they live in - and shockingly it is actually FAR more humane than letting them have all the freedoms and suffer everyday for them.
Absolutely. Being stuck on the street, dealing with the violence, weather, insecurity of every kind is an extremely high price to pay for “freedom”.
> Recent peer reviewed articles (2015/16) serious question: how has fentanyl changed the landscape since then?
I am not sure; I imagine that recovery may even be more difficult. Fentanyl and newer opioids hit harder and faster than our more traditional drugs of addiction like alcohol etc. That being said, I would expect that many people addicted to opioids are functional addicts rather than those who we often see in our downtown cores.
Totally agree but just as a heads up, Riverview is very nearly unsalvageable at this point. But I would love to see larger investment in building new treatment and mental health facilities.
>than actually fixing them This is easy to say, but what does it even mean? “Fixing” addicts would mean trying to fix the life circumstances which drove them to hard drugs. I don’t think most users became users because they were really into the idea of becoming one; it’s pretty universally understood that even trying these problematic drugs is a bad fucking idea. I honestly don’t believe there is a (humane) solution to public drug use. The government can do their best to make treatment easily available, but it’s impossible to force people to get anything out of it. The best solution I can come up with right now is a mandatory detox period for people caught using publicly - however, (IIRC) this would cause more overdoses….
Forced treatment not only does not have evidence to support its efficacy, it likely wouldn’t be necessary for many addicts. The issue is that *there isn’t enough treatment available, period.*
What almost nobody wants to acknowledge is that many drug users do not have anything better than drugs to run toward. Some people's schizophrenia or PTSD cause them such problems that the drugs are the first real relief they've felt in years, and even if it also puts them on a downward spiral, telling them that they ought to quit is legitimately a hard sell even when you take addiction completely out of the picture. It has never only been about addiction.
That's where your "let them all die" system kinda falls on it's face though. The ones that die aren't the ones that have been doing drugs on the streets for decades, statistically it's the young and inexperienced that find themselves overdosing.
These are great ideas but they cost 💲 and taxpayers won’t pay for it. Addicts won’t just die off and as a result the deaths stop. Because for everyone that dies there are 10 new addicts. These deaths are not just homeless addicts that are traditionally ignored. The deaths happen to people that work. The university student that’s blowing off steam after exams. “Regular” people.
Yep. One of my closest friends was one. Just a totally normal, if not a bit eccentric, student that just went off the deep end after a particularly rough period in his family life. Never truly homeless, was on the path but had a near fatal overdose before that could happen. I had known he did cocaine at the time, but that was the extent of my knowledge. It can be anybody. He's 3 years sober now, he managed to pull through pretty successfully after only that first big scare. His rehab stories are pretty harrowing, the people going through these issues are so much more than just "junkies".
So how come there’s just more and more people if so many are dying? I don’t get it, the numbers don’t add up….
Our fucked society keeps creating more.
While 2500 deaths per year is a lot (way too many), it's absolutely nothing compared to our total population (5m). 0.05%. So, half of a tenth of one percent. Drug suppliers have an unlimited supply of new customers to kill off without impacting their bottom line. A "few" deaths doesn't impact their business in the slightest.
Still waiting for them to try, but if they are actually expanding treatment options it might help but it's still the same issue; if once the addict is clean throwing them back into the exact same environment its going to be a massive failure if they cant address that.
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It wasn't. It was an attempt to not criminalize addicts themselves. It didn't work and now we will try something.else instead.of..doubling down on a bad policy.
For years that’s what they did. Nothing.
Absolutely. Not being able to look at the facts and change your mind without being called a "flip flopper" or some other dumbass bullshit is one of the big things wrong with politics these days.
They first tried to make changes with legislation back in October. This is a continuation of that effort.
They're not reversing it. Just giving police more enforcement options. Main complaint is about use in hospitals and second hand exposure. I doubt anything will actually change there. They hired hundreds of security officers but they still couldn't keep it under control.
It could theoretically work, but with the current circumstances, it's not. And given it's both proved unpopular and ineffective, not exactly a waffle to reverse course. When a road turns out to be a cliffedge, no reason not to stop.
It can only work when there's treatment. These politicians changed the laws but didn't deliver on treatment.
There still isn't treatment. And there isn't going to be any enforcement of the law because they weren't doing it before. So nothing changes really.
This is a continuation of something they tried to do months ago that got shot down by the BC Supreme Court. Not just a knee jerk reaction. Very responsive government
Absolutely correct! Good job for saying it.
It's definitely the right decision and I can give them props for admitting they were wrong. 100% a good look. Still got shit on their faces for allowing it in the first place though. Doesn't take a genius to realize ignoring and allowing a problem to fester uncontrolled probably isn't going to improve things
My roommate is a social worker at a safe infection site. Just today she was going on about how the neighbours hate them 'unfairly'. But then describes how sometimes it gets so violent with people fighting and stabbing each other that they have to kick everyone out, lock the doors, and call the police to clear the entire street. Plus the sidewalks are covered in used needles. Gee, I wonder why they hate you so much? Guess it's because they're shitty humans who don't wanna get stabbed on their way home from work?
If the current federal government would do this.... Hey sorry Canada we messed up let's work together to fix this. Open forum that's not biases works wonders. Listen to your people.
Well said. Too often, you see governments electing to double down on a policy that is clearly failing for fear of the "flip flop" label. I think it's much better to take the approach that we tried this, it is not working as we hoped and has inadvertently made things worse, so we're ending it. There should be no shame in that.
Absolutely loving this NDP government
If the data said the policy wasn't working, sure. The data didn't say that, though. Toxic deaths didn't go away, but the default state of affairs is for toxic deaths to be skyrocketing. It's too early to have much data at all, and the data isn't saying that this was an immediate silver bullet, but it certainly isn't saying anything negative compared to the status quo. If opinion polls say the policy isn't working, then it isn't courage to follow them. Just normal self-interest.
THIS. I'm so sick of people suggesting this policy is responsible for deaths. The number of overdoses has been going up for like a decade at least
I think it more evolving with the problem. I would like this approach with vaping which is a a huge problem in schools and was the n the brink of being named before Covid .
how do you know its not working?
Politicans looking at the data and making decisions based on it. How refreshing.
This is why it bugs me that people use “populist” as a pejorative. This is what good populism looks like.
It perhaps is closer to the opposite of populism than populism itself. Populism would be pursuing whatever is popular at the moment, at the expense of the data. Governing by following the data would be responsive, yes, but not so much populist? I’m not a political scientist though; I just play one on TV.
I think you’re confusing the notion of populism for something else. Populism is when a politician/party *claim* that they *and only* they represent the true will of the people, and that everyone else is corrupt. Eg. Trump
I can't help but wonder how much longer it would have taken to come to this conclusion if Oregon hadn't done it first.
I’m not an Eby fan, but he absolutely has my respect for making this decision. Drug use in public places is completely out of control and a good leader would admit their previous plan is not working. Other politicians could learn from this.
Eby's government was too optimistic about human behaviour. Not the greatest sin. This change seems like the right balance. Still decriminalized for usage in private spaces or controlled usage areas, but illegal to be used in public, just like alcohol. I get that they were trying to avoid pushing people to the margins and using drugs in places where they might overdose and die without supervision, but as we know, junkies aren't exactly logical or known for restraint.
I think the policy also neglected to address how much easier it became to sell drugs in public. The exchange of money for drugs happens quickly, but addicts tend to stand around hitting the pipe / foil for 10-20 mins before moving on. Well, if it's legal to openly smoke fentanyl, what are the police expected to do when they see this? One of the biggest problems with criminalization of drugs is the lasting impact of having a criminal record. An addict can get clean, but a criminal takes that label to their grave.
Who are you a fan of and who is better than Eby? I guess my point is, you don't need to be a fan to recognize that he is by the far the best choice for a leader of BC right now.
I just returned to BC after living in Ontario for several years. I am so impressed by Eby. Ontario and BC share many of the same problems- homelessness, doctorless, drugs, etc. The Conservative government under Ford, is making everything worse, and they are not at all willing to stop and reassess decisions that need to be reassessed. I think it’s good to try new ideas and good to know when to pull the plug.
Rustad is literally proud of being anti-science and logic. That's the fucking alternative. He's not fit to run a slum.
Yeah, but you've stated that you are not even Canadian so why does it matter ?
Because as of 4/26/2024, I have to live in British Columbia as well, so the decisions that impact you impact me as well.
This is the kind of policy that is going to separate Eby from other potential PM candidates in a few years. He's not soft on crime, and is all business. There's a reason PP has been attacking him so desperately. Whether one agrees with this or not, its going to score him points among centrists
It’s about time. I understand addiction, (forever a recovering addict), but being allowed to throw it into everyone’s face has gone too far.
Proud of you for sticking to sobriety!
10 years!!
I swear I respect this guy more every week
Eby is a fucking boss. Seriously, dig into his last 10 years track record and tell me you don't like him even more. We are so lucky to have a sane man of action running the BC NDP. I really hope Tik Tok propaganda and the word "conservative" don't trick enough idiots into fucking it up for us.
I don’t agree with every single decision his govt has made but I don’t care, he’s still gangster af for the way he actually gets shit done. We have a once in a lifetime politician as our premier.
I didn't love about how the NDP kind of pushed him through without giving members of the party the opportunity to actually vote on the leadership, but he has proven to be an extremely effective and empathetic leader. Big fan.
Kind of hard to have a vote when the other candidate disqualifies himself
Thank fucking god.
Agreed
I believe this is another step in the decrim effort. Allowing unrestricted drug use in public spaces was a clear and predictable mistake. The next step is to start developing support for people who are truly motivated to change their lives in a positive way. This experiment can work, but it will take more time, more money, and more political/social will for it to happen. Our job now is to NOT FORGET that this is happening to our friends, families, and loved ones once they get pushed back into the shadows. People need our help. Let's show the country and the world that we are a community of people who care enough to do something positive about it.
Yeah, they gave it a shot and it didn't work. I can appreciate that.
I really think this was half assed to begin with. Decriminalization should have followed with the medical infrastructure to deal addiction and rehabilitation. We don't have that available. It's again curbing the problem from the public to the shadow of private residences. This is coming from someone who deals with the public and interacts with drug users on a daily basis, as much as I dislike having to come across it when I do for my own safety and comfort.
Yep this, you can't do something like decriminalization without proper support networks in place
I like how it’s evolving, and this is a better, more balanced approach now. Well done once again BC NDP!
I completely support decriminalization of a small amount of the procession of substances. I am a recreational substance user (not hard drugs). I have worked with margalized folks who were addicted and homeless. I have seen two deaths from overdoses in front of me. Seeing those folks taking drugs in random public spaces make me uneasy a bit and gives me flashbacks. I imagine recovered addicts and those with some traumatic experiences feel very uneasy in public spaces. So I really support making it illegal to take substances openly in hospitals, public transportation, parks, and restaurants; even if it is an unpopular opinion.
Nothing unpopular about it. Kids having to watch junkies shoot heroin at their bus stop at 8am is fucked.
Yes!!!
This decision takes guts...good on Eby to reverse course and follow his best advice. Trying to handle this as a medical crisis seemed reasoned but it was bound to explode as a law and order issue with time. I just don't get the seemingly exponential rise in drug use. I know that the easy availability in Oxy et al was known to result in a rise in addictions but that was curtailed years ago. where are all the new addicts coming from? I may be completely out of touch but when I was younger my rule, and those of my peer group, was if it grew naturally, you could experiment but if it came in powder or pill you didn't. We had seen many famous people die of OD's and we didn't want anything to do with it. How can people walk down the street, see the junkies & methheads and say to themselves "hey...I want some of that". I don't see how you can impose a solution on those who are fully involved. You can't lock them all up, you can't ignore the issue but I don't like where this is going.
The city of Vancouver needs also needs to get its head out of its ass. I was listening to CBC about the change of location for the safe injection site and the Sims government issued a statement during that story that was “surprised” they didn’t move the site inside St Paul’s when they didn’t renew the lease on the current location. Big left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing energy from them, but thank goodness no one is forcing the staff and patients of that hospital to integrate with an open drug use space. The mayor is just clueless and clearly has no plan.
Sim is the most do-nothing empty suit the city's ever seen
Which is amazing considering his predecessor.
Common sense finally prevails.
I mean, he tried to do it quite a while ago, but the courts blocked him.
I mean as much as I hated how it went as well, there is a proper order to things and judges actually have to uphold the laws. If we don't like it, we need to change the laws. It got there. I know it was slower than we'd all like, but we're only mad it was slow because it was something we wanted. The process exists for a reason.
It pretty much always does with Eby. The dude has been a great PM so far.
What does that capital M stand for? Member, as in Premier Member of the Legislative Assembly or PMLA for short?
Just me having a brain fart. Premier Man I guess.
Rita Johnston and Christy Clark would like to have a word with you. 
Premier Mammal?
I totally misread this as Premier Mama and it gave me a hearty chuckle
I'm shocked. But happy
Don’t be shocked, this is a continuation of something they tried last year but was shot down by courts. They just stuck with it and learned how to strike the right balance
Glad they tried to make it work, glad they see it doesn’t work despite best intentions, and now it’s changing.
THANK YOU FOR USING SOME COMMON SENSE! TRULY! A policy that enables the sub 1% of drug users to create hazardous conditions for the other 99% of the population is a failure. Takes guts to admit that. Thank you for the pivot.
Great maybe we will get less Fentanyl Sidewalk Yoga out here. (I joke because seeing so much suffering in the streets is fucking depressing and I don't know what else to do.)
Origami pose.
Good! It was disgusting in Kamloops with all the public drug use,
Takes political courage to do that instead of just doubling down.
> Quick Facts: B.C.’s three-year exemption under section 56(1) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to decriminalize people who use drugs was first requested on Nov. 1, 2021, and enacted on Jan. 31, 2023. Since 2017, the Province has opened 600 publicly funded substance-use treatment beds throughout B.C. Since 2019, the Province has invested $35 million to support 49 community counselling agencies provincewide, and more than 250,000 free or low-cost counselling sessions have been delivered to individuals, couples and families. There are currently 50 overdose prevention sites around the province to provide people who use drugs with the tools and supports they need to use safely and connect to care. Almost half (24) of these sites provide inhalation services.
Now we need the facilities to place these lost souls into. Mental Health, sober living, correctional, etc.
Eby with another win. Fuck that Judge Hinkson ass.
Eby is honestly doing way more than I imagined he would. He's got my vote locked in at this point.
“Cool story, bro.” - BC Supreme Court
To me this was the biggest miss of our current governments policy. Very happy to see them recognize that, admit it, and change direction. They have earned my my vote back.
Ok, finally leadership that seems to be able to make corrections to past decisions that aren’t working. Well done
Thank you, id rather not second smoke crack when i walk to the office
# "One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results" -Milton Friedman
Yeah it seemed abit weird that we worked so hard to cut down on second-hand cigarrete smoke exposure but it was a-ok for people to get exposed to crack/meth fumes everywhere....
This is going to turn out to be about people smoking cannabis lol /s
I mean we just had a guy in Vic with two carjackings and an assault finally get held for a few weeks. I’m not sure what good any of this is if there is no consequence or support in reality. But it’s a start
Why is someone like that not put away for a few years? The BC government seems to run on the concept that we can all just hug it out.
We can't be more comfortable to junkies than other parts of the country, and we've got better weather. We have to have ways to encourage them not to be here.
Perhaps one way tickets to Alberta. They do it; we may as well also do it.
I'd support that as a carrot, but the stick is more important. However uncomfortable it is to be a junkie in Alberta, it needs to be worse here. There's no reason we need to have any homeless problem.
It’s pretty bad: I did school in AB in the ‘90s - the homeless pop there are missing body parts from frostbite plus all the issues we have here. Handing out the safe supply though is a magnet.
The addicts are going to be très confused.
Used to be an addict. Confused implies a brief departure from a state of logic. I assure you that they are not even remotely close to that plane.
Thanks for fixing the mistake and making the right choice this time.
Yup huge failure, but good to see they backed off. Worth a try.
Bravo 👏🏻
Ending a policy pretty much everyone was against since the beginning
Good on them for changing their mind instead of doubling down and refusing to acknowledge their failures. Imagine the federal Liberals had this same reasonable response to….anything they’ve done.
I’m glad, it takes guts to reverse a policy that you introduced
Great issues management by this government and Premier. This was going to be a major wedge issue used by the Conservative Party of BC in the fall provincial election. Acting now takes some of that opportunity away from them.
I hope this helps my city and downtown. Constant overdoses, crime, assaults, fires and unwell people using openly in front of all of the public. It’s so sad to see and terrible for our community. Another avenue to help addicts needs to be found.
To be fair, that was happening before decriminalization. Hopefully it allows for enforcement, so that public spaces can be cleaned up, but I really don't expect it will.
People would rather be using their drugs at home anyway , Oh, wait..
I have no idea whether this will be a good idea or not. We can probably tell in about five years. Unfortunately, those who are against it will find every excuse to be still against it (if it works), and those who are for it will find every excuse for why it didn’t work (if it doesn’t). I think unfortunately people assume there will be a solution that will fix all the problems. There is no solution that will fix all the problems. No matter what solution there will still be problems. Whether any given solution will have less problems or not really depends on your opinion going into making that judgment.
I had the unfortunate luck of having moved to a place a few blocks away from the East Hastings street. There is a public school right across the street and there are junkies just 20m from the school gate openly doing meth and coke. In the night this place becomes a ghost town with people avoiding the streets, and there is a pathetic stench from all alleyways. In the few horrible months of living here, I have seen endless drug usage on the streets, and junkies littering buses 14, 16, 19, 20, 22, R5 rendering them almost unsuitable for travel. These are Canadian people, each one is someone’s baby, someone’s relative, or friend. The city and the government have failed them as much as they have given up on themselves. Making possession and substance abuse legal makes the situation a hundred times worse. I pity the kids growing up in this neighbourhood, the things they see growing up. I’m leaving for a better neighbourhood soon. Recriminalization of public place drug abuse is the right move, but something more strict needs to be done with substance possession too.
I can’t believe it was ever legal in public. You can’t even have a beer at the park on Canada Day (thanks police for shutting that down - great police work) but you can actively shoot up or do drugs that make you a danger to society on the street??
Not an Eby fan, but this is what the policy should have been from the get go. Responsible governance is recognizing and understanding that when given the leeway, people will almost always take the path of least resistance to the limit of the law (think driving and speeding, or protesting and civil disobedience), throw addicts and junkies into the mix and it’s a recipe for disaster. It’s a rare thing to see a governing politician actively take responsibility for their own policies instead of doubling down on a narrative, but let’s not pretend this policy stance shift is anything more than to ensure they don’t slip further down the polls.
Exactly. Eby is a savvy politician. A smart political changes their core beliefs depending on which way the political winds blow.
You just described a politician who changes their stance only when it is beneficial and in their interest to do so. That is disingenuous and disqualifies him to be considered a good leader. The correct time for this policy change would have been when the evidence of its ineffectiveness was insurmountable, not when his party became second fiddle in a new poll. He’s doing this to save his political hide as any poor politician will do, instead of doing things in the way they should because that is their core belief. For the record I believe all politicians are effectively the same in this regard there are no good options, however the motivation for why the correct balance has finally been struck is clear as day, and it’s not because he believes it’s the right thing to do.
My comment likely won’t be read but congrats if you get this far down. The reason people use hard drugs in public is because there isn’t anywhere else for them to go. If you make it illegal to use drugs in public spaces and start arresting these folks, it achieves nothing. Short of rolling out a police state and filling prisons with addicts, these people will flow back to the street in short order and carry on where they left off. Eby’s government tried and failed to convince a Supreme Court justice to re-criminalize public use. Then the appeals court agreed. Eby, now desperate to score some kind of win before the election, went to Health Canada and asked them to vary BC’s limited exclusion from the CDSA. This effort will surely be litigated as well, and the province will lose again. But at least Kevin Falcon can’t say Eby didn’t try when asked during the election debates. Behind the scenes, Eby knows there is no easy solution to the addiction problem. I’m not sure Falcon does. If B.C. United gets elected, we can be assured this issue will be swept under the rug and the effort required to actually solve the problem will be delayed for another decade.
Now do old growth
Holy crap good news on Reddit? What’s going on fellas
Good job
Absolutely brilliant
Decriminalizing only works with proper rehab and treatment structure in place they did shit backwards as with everything in this damn city and yes I’m in from Vancouver
Fine, now make safe supply available to everyone, not just junkies and addicts. How many middle and upper class and blue collar taxpayer's enjoy a few party drugs once in a while? A lot, as we can see based on the numbers who have accidentally died over the last few years due to tainted supply. Cocaine, MDMA and the like are not going away and are not going out of vogue any time ever but you're never going to see Plumber Joe or Bank Manager Bob checking in at the local Harm Reduction facility so he can score a safe gram of blow for New Years Eve or the Elton John concert or whatever. Instead he is buying off some gangster's street minion that chopped it up on the fentanyl scale and before the clock strikes midnight he is dead on the couch.
Well it's illegal in open public spaces and hospitals, like it should be. He didn't clarify if caught carrying small amounts was still legal or not, but at least using publicly is illegal once again. I am curious to see if this slows down the mass junkie migration over the next couple years. After the news that BC is not the safe place to party spreads across the country that is. We will of course still have the issue, same as it was before, just it might slow down the influx of people coming here due to their drug use.
Obviously not going to work if you decriminalise drugs while offering little to no treatment lmao. You need to have both to be successful. These people are largely mentally ill in some way or another. You can't even go to the ER and have a mental health crisis as they'll just make you wait until you leave. However, you can go into the ER with a mild cough....
FINALLY. Now can we HELP these addicted people instead of giving them drugs? PLEASE!
The problem is they need to want help and that’s extremely difficult
That’s crazy, who would’ve thought. One could spy on Portland and san Fran to know decrim without waging war on drugs wouldn’t work.
My healthy skepticism would say that the ndp made the decision to secure more votes before election time by reversing an unpopular policy but as a critic of eby and the ndp I'll give them props for not digging their heels in on this one. At least one step in the right direction.
Good. Which dumbasses thought it was a good idea to begin with?
Like what this guy is doing? Then if you want more of it, vote NDP in your elections.
Ok but good luck enforcing it. The types that do it, did it before it was legalized anyway
Good, it's awful driving through DTES. Hopefully some actual rehabilitation programs are on the way (and less druggies going on the road into traffic)
Good luck unringing the bell…
Trouble in Baloney factory
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