British Columbia ending its 3-year drug decriminalization pilot project

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VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) — Canada's Pacific coast province of British Columbia is ending its three-year experiment in decriminalizing possession of small amounts of drugs.

British Columbia Health Minister Josie Osborne announced Wednesday the province is not seeking an extension of its agreement with Canada's federal health agency that allowed the decriminalization of small amounts of drugs for personal possession.

Osborne said the goal of the three-year pilot project slated to end Jan. 31 was to make it easier for people to come forward and seek help, but it “hasn’t delivered the results” officials hoped for.

Oregon’s first-in-the-United States experiment with drug decriminalization ended in 2004, when possessing small amounts of hard drugs will once again became a crime. Oregon voted in 2020 to decriminalize.

British Columbia's decriminalization project began in January 2023, after Health Canada granted the province an exemption under the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

It initially allowed adults to possess up to 2.5 grams cumulatively of opioids, crack and powdered cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA.

But in 2024, the exemption was amended to restrict such possession to private homes and places where homeless people are legally sheltering, as well as designated health-care clinics and overdose prevention, drug checking and supervised consumption sites.

With the end of decriminalization, Osborne said the government is focused on “strengthening the approaches that are helping people get timely, appropriate care.”

“We are building a more complete and comprehensive system of mental-health and addictions care in B.C., including prevention, treatment and recovery, harm reduction and aftercare,” she said in a statement.

In 2001, Portugal became the first country in the world to decriminalize the consumption of all drugs.