Drugs Archives -

Drug Laws: Death by Policy

June 14, 2022 Harland Bird

The recent announcement that possession of up to 2.5 grams of certain illicit drugs will be exempted from criminal prosecution in BC has rightly been called a historic “forward step” towards addressing the ongoing toxic drug deaths. But in emergency situations, “forward steps” are not good enough — not if they are too slow and […]

Poison Drugs Emergency

April 20, 2022 Salman Zafar, Bill Hopwood

After six years of BC’s public health emergency due to poison drugs things are much worse. The health emergency was declared following 474 deaths in 2015, yet in 2021 there were at least 2,232 drug fatalities. In contrast, there were 1,522 COVID deaths for all of 2021. After six years deaths are nearly five times […]