Latest / Kvetch & Release / B.C. seeks ban on using drugs in 'all public spaces,' shifting approach to decriminalization

Transcript

B.C. seeks ban on using drugs in 'all public spaces,' shifting approach to decriminalization · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Joining me right now to give immediate reaction to this breaking news that I don't
• 0:05
  know if anybody was expecting it to happen as quickly as it did or this
• 0:08
  afternoon quite frankly, is the founder and director of the Center for Responsible Drug
• 0:13
  Policy. Adam Zo joins me right now. Adam, what's your reaction to
• 0:17
  this news. Honestly, this is long overdue. This is a phenomenal,
• 0:24
  phenomenal pon development. I cannot stress enough how this strawphic drug decrimalization has been
• 0:32
  in British Columbia past year and a few months. Like I just came back
• 0:36
  from Vancouver and walking throughout downtown even over the course of an hour, you
• 0:41
  know, I passed by at least twenty people open openly smoked in the crack.
• 0:46
  Earlier this month, I interviewed nurses who talked about how they would find
• 0:50
  people smoking mass and Sentinel inside their hospital rooms. There's been this really evidence
• 0:56
  backlash across the entire province saying that this is enough, and so it is
• 1:00
  just it is a relief to see the BDNDP is finally responding to that.
• 1:07
  So police are going to be able to resume seizures and arrests for drug use
• 1:11
  and drug possession in public spaces. Decriminalization will only remain in private residences.
• 1:17
  We're hearing this from journalists who had been following this as it was breaking,
• 1:21
  So decriminalizationally in private residence shelters, overdose prevention sites, and healthcare sites with
• 1:26
  outpatient addiction services. What do you think about those measures remaining? Is that
• 1:32
  a sensible middle ground? Still? I think it's sensible to allow open drug
• 1:37
  use some of those This thing that I disagree with is the continued legalization of
• 1:42
  possession of small amounts of drugs, because we know that that allows you dealers
• 1:48
  to traffic their self pances much more easily. And that's something I've been hearing
• 1:53
  from interviewees INBC who have been trying to control the flow of drugs in the
• 1:57
  communities. One particular that stands out was an indigenous chief just based outside of
• 2:04
  Campbell River who testified to how drug decuitalization based meant that all of the drug
• 2:12
  utilisics preserve would now just go out and make many more smaller amounts of drugs.
• 2:17
  Right, So it's just proposing to me that they would just allow simple
• 2:22
  possession to still keep legalized in the middle of a drug crisis that has been
• 2:27
  so catastrophic. One of the big things I think that really caused a lot
• 2:31
  of concern among you know, just Canadians who had been following this file who
• 2:36
  might have been in support of, you know, decriminalization and open possession and
• 2:39
  usage, was when it came to the hospitals specifically. And now drug possession
• 2:45
  and use are going to be banned in BC hospitals. They're going to be
• 2:47
  boosting their addictions team and their resources. Nurses are not going to be searching
• 2:52
  people for drugs, but they'll ask and if people break the rules, security
• 2:55
  will then address that and can remove them from the hospital. The fact that
• 3:00
  it seemed like anything could go inside of a hospital just seemed preposterous for a
• 3:06
  lot of people, quite frankly. Well, so here's the thing is that
• 3:08
  many people had I realized a vision of what drug ucumalization would be. A
• 3:14
  VCNDP really pitched this as a basically Portuguese model. So in Portugal they did
• 3:23
  twenty years ago, and they saw positive outcomes, they saw decreased overdoses,
• 3:28
  they saw decreased infectious diseases. But what they did in Portugal is very different
• 3:31
  from what they did in BC. In Portugal, it wasn't as if drug
• 3:36
  users were allowed to do whatever they wanted. Instead, the country invested significantly
• 3:39
  in the treatment capacity so you could get treatment on demand. And then they
• 3:44
  created a parallel, non criminal system of accountability. So if you were caught
• 3:49
  with a small amount of illicit substances, you were sent to a tribunal or
• 3:53
  a commission rather that was composed of a social worker, a psychologist, and
• 3:57
  a lawyer, and they could use fines in other cours methods to push you
• 4:01
  into seeking treatments. And you know what, that worked. That was effective.
• 4:05
  There was accountability, but people were also they didn't have to worry about
• 4:09
  being saddled with a criminal record that was just their lives, just because in
• 4:14
  BC they said they were going to basically do that, and instead what they
• 4:16
  did is this basically let people do whatever they wanted, and that model was
• 4:21
  down to sale. And I think now people are beginning to understand that not
• 4:26
  all models suitmalizations are the same, and that BC's model was particularly reckless and
• 4:30
  particularly lazy. So I've had people that have responded to me on this issue
• 4:38
  saying, don't give in to the moral panic on this file. The statistics
• 4:43
  don't bear out the way that they look like. In fact, things are
• 4:46
  much better than the way that they appear. The media sensationalizes people go out
• 4:48
  of their way to try to present things in a shock and awe type of
• 4:51
  way. Yet we have the premiere today being so clear this amendment will make
• 4:57
  public drug use illegal in British Columbia. What do you have to say to
• 5:00
  people who brought up that moral the moral chaos argument, the moral panic argument.
• 5:09
  The kids will always try to claim that any public farmers and moral panic.
• 5:13
  If you look at the staff, there's there's an issue here where we're
• 5:15
  not We don't need to be capturing all of the data, right, So,
• 5:19
  for example, diagnoses a opate substance use disorders significantly. But that's also
• 5:27
  understandable, and that our healthcare system is collapsing, and it's harder for people
• 5:30
  to be treatment, right, it's very different for someone to be addicted versus
• 5:34
  someone to be addicted and to go seek treatment. Great art a public selves.
• 5:41
  So Adam, I think we're gonna have to let you go. I
• 5:47
  know that you're coming to us live right now. And unfortunately the signal seems
• 5:51
  to be a little bit cutting out. I really do appreciate your taking your
• 5:55
  time and sharing it with us.