Drug Decriminalization is No More

Pierre Poilievre reminded every Canadian of how he fought the B.C. drug decriminalization program before Premier Eby’s humiliating retreat.

Despite the best efforts of NDP and liberal politicians along with police brass trying to mask the scale of the fentanyl crisis; B.C.’s NDP Premier David Eby scrambled to re-criminalize open drug use he once championed, in a desperate attempt to save his own skin.

Just months after proudly pioneering the radical policy, Eby is in full damage control mode.

Eby cited “quickly escalating” street chaos, brazen consumption in hospitals and parks, and angry citizens feeling unsafe. But this is the entirely predictable result of his naive agenda enabling addiction rather than addressing it.

It is a stunning admission of failure for an ideologue who staked his political brand on decriminalization. Eby even attacked federal Conservatives for opposing his risky scheme. But now with an election looming, he is scrambling to save face.

It is a clear contrast to the conservatives standing ground and fighting the program since inception all while the lies of Trudeau continue to champion a cause with no advantage and are actively hurting everyday Canadians.

B.C. Backs Down

Pierre Poilievre justifiably went on an “I told you so” tour on twitter recently in response to David Eby backing down on hard drugs decriminalization, starting with reposting a 2022 video that featured the conservative leader lambasting Trudeau and David Eby for the British Columbia “safe supply” and decriminalization of drugs program.

He showcased the dire state of Canada back in 2022, which is depressingly hilarious in contrast to how much worse things have gotten.

Poilievre then proceeded to talk about the adverse effects of federal supplied drugs running rampant in the street and how it does not help the addict nor the innocent and responsible Canadian with all the crime rates going up.

Once again, this was back in 2022 and everyone tried to jump on the bandwagon of debunking Poilievre’s statements and data, and now everything that Poilievre warned against then, has happened. Which brings us to the topic of discussion where the slimy and corrupt NDP premier of B.C. David Eby backpedals his way into election season.

On Friday, Premier David Eby announced the province will ask the federal government to roll back the exemption that allowed for public drug use in B.C.

Eby cited growing concerns from citizens about “street disorder” and “quickly escalating” issues with open drug consumption in public spaces like bus shelters, parks, and even hospitals.

The move represents a stunning policy reversal for Eby’s left-leaning government. But it is still quite funny how they have claimed time and time again that they are closely monitoring the situation only for them to be surprised somehow with all the chaos this policy had caused.

B.C. Drug Crisis

In January 2023, B.C. decriminalized personal possession of small amounts of drugs like cocaine, meth, and fentanyl in an effort to approach substance abuse as a health issue rather than a criminal one. But the corrupt and dangerous social experiment has clearly and utterly failed.

Stories of brazen public drug use and its consequences have piled up, outraging voters across the province.

Hospital staff have reported finding dirty needles and having to constantly monitor bathrooms. Patients feel unsafe. Bus drivers say they regularly find people injecting drugs on buses.

And B.C.’s approach stood in direct contrast to a more common sense conservative approach where possession of even tiny amounts of drugs should be strictly illegal.

Police Are Implicated

It has gotten so bad that police had to testify before a parliamentary health committee and try to defend their weak grasp on the drug chaos running rampant in B.C.’s streets.

They revealed alarming facts about the rampant black market diversion of British Columbia’s controversial “safer supply” opioids. However, senior law enforcement officials also appeared to downplay the severity of the problem in statements that raised eyebrows.

Fiona Wilson, deputy chief of the Vancouver Police Department, told MPs that approximately 50% of seized hydromorphone in B.C. can be traced back to the taxpayer-funded safer supply program.

This prescription heroin substitute is being diverted to illegally sell on the streets at unprecedented levels.

Wilson estimated that around 20% of hydromorphone patients in B.C. are enrolled in safer supply programs. By implication, safer supply clients are diverting four times more medication per capita than other hydromorphone patients.

This troubling data directly contradicts the claims of harm reduction advocates who argue diversion of safer supply drugs is rare or insignificant.

When a government program is doubling the supply of pharmaceutical opioids as potent as heroin on the black market, that is extremely alarming.

However, there are reasons to believe the per capita diversion rates among safer supply clients are actually much higher than Wilson’s remarks suggest.

The deputy chief did not provide the raw data behind her diversion statistics, so her framing raises questions.

According to the 2018/2019 B.C. Controlled Prescription Drug Atlas, there were approximately 80,000 hydromorphone patients in the province prior to the expansion of safer supply access in 2020. That number is unlikely to have changed much since then.

In contrast, there are only about 4,500 active safer supply clients on average. This implies that safer supply patients may comprise just 5%, not 20%, of all hydromorphone users in B.C. If so, they could be diverting nearly 20 times more medication per capita.

Furthermore, Wilson did not clarify whether the 50% of hydromorphone seizures conclusively not linked to safer supply were definitively tied to other sources, or whether the origin was simply unknown in those cases.

Given the difficulty in tracing diverted drugs, it is plausible the degree of undetected safer supply diversion is even higher than the verified cases. Her vague wording should raise red flags.

Nonetheless, Wilson spent much time playing down diversion concerns. She fixated on fentanyl causing most overdose deaths, ignoring that hydromorphone addiction puts users on a path to harder opioids. Her evasive answers reinforce a perception that senior police are covering for the government.

B.C. RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald also made statements at odds with frontline officers.

He implausibly claimed there is no evidence of interprovincial diversion of safer supply, contradicting investigators in northern B.C. And he repeated the dubious claim that widespread safer supply diversion is not occurring, despite growing proof to the contrary.

And when the B.C. police is not busy downplaying the effects of safe supply so that people do not question their weak oversight, they outright admit that the provincial government is not allowing them to do their jobs and respond to public drug use cases as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

The testimony ultimately provided more smoke than fire regarding the true scale of B.C.’s safer supply diversion crisis. But it confirmed what many feared: lax oversight and naive policy has allowed enormous amounts of dangerous prescription narcotics to be siphoned into illegal markets. This is what the liberals mean when they talk about safely supplying and closely monitoring hard drugs in the streets of Canada; chaos and addiction is the only result.

Will This Save The B.C. NDP?

Now, with an election looming this fall, Premier Eby has clearly gotten the message from frustrated British Columbians. His government’s lax attitude toward drugs has been a disaster. So he is taking the first step to recriminalize the use of hard drugs in public spaces.

B.C.’s proposed policy change would still allow drug possession in private homes. Because you can never get anything fully right with the NDP and the LIberals. But it aims to give the police more power to crack down on disorderly conduct and clear out open drug scenes in public spaces. Hopefully they do their job properly this time.

It is quite ironic however how the looming threat of an election disaster was the only thing needed to get the corrupt B.C. NDP and the premier to acknowledge the blatant stupidity and danger that drug decriminalization ensues.

Conservative like Poilievre have been fighting tooth and nail to alert everyone about the dangers of this “woke” liberal agenda.

While our dear prime minister was busy looking for ways to absolve himself of all B.C. decriminalization sins even while still championing the approach even after all the evidence against it had been laid bare.

Trudeau is a corrupt hypocrite for standing with and allowing such programs that will verifiably negatively affect the health of Canadians and make life worse for unassuming addicts that just want to recover, but will proceed to heavily and unjustifiably regulate health products being sold in Canada including natural supplements. Talk about slimy priorities.

Now with Premier Eby scrambling to escape accountability, Poilievre is owed an apology from every official who attacked his stance. The Conservative leader has proven his courage and vision time and again in fighting threats to our prosperity.

While Trudeau continues betraying citizens with harmful agendas, Poilievre remains a bold defender of Canadian values and interests against all enemies within and without. The choice ahead is clear.