Since it was introduced more than a year ago, B.C.’s experiment in drug decriminalization has not been met with the best of publicity. And problems associated with the project continue to mount.
There is little question the public is beginning to conclude decriminalization is not worth its downsides.
The latest involves the Northern Health district. A memo to nursing staff in the region sent out last summer, but which only recently surfaced, suggests those working in hospitals not confiscate patients’ drugs (or weapons). Why? Because they are not illegal to possess or use under B.C.’s decriminalization program.
And this, apparently, is what is happening in some hospitals. Patients are going into bathrooms and smoking drugs that were previously illicit. This is posing a massive problem for hospital staff who are being told to be hands-off, but are, in some cases, being subjected to the second-hand smoke coming from the use of these drugs.
The opposition BC United party raised the matter in the provincial legislature during a recent Question Period. The party’s mental health critic, Elenore Sturko, highlighted the case of a nurse on Vancouver Island who returned to work after maternity leave and was exposed to smoke from illicit drugs. Apparently, the exposure was so bad she sought emergency care and was instructed to stop breastfeeding her infant child.
This is madness. But it is absolutely something that is going on in B.C., where nurses, doctors and staff are generally feeling unsafe. I spoke to one Vancouver nurse who said drugs are being used quite freely and openly in Metro Vancouver hospitals (this is not an issue only affecting rural parts of the province). The last thing nurses need or want is patients getting agitated because someone took their drugs away, she told me. It’s easier to let them have their drugs, which are now legal to possess anyway.
There isn’t a nurse she knows who hasn’t been yelled at, punched, kicked, spit at – you name it, she said. It’s why, in her opinion, it’s getting so hard to retain young nurses now – rampant drug use in hospitals is part of that.
And who needs to work in an environment where you’re advised to not seize drugs – or weapons! – from patients? “Staff: DO NOT remove personal items from the patient’s room, even if there is a knife or something considered as a weapon under [four inches] long,” the aforementioned memo sent to staff at the G.R. Baker Memorial Hospital on July 7, 2023, advised.
It goes on: “We do not restrict visitors if we suspect patients are bringing in substances. Only restrict if they are violent, intoxicated or posing a problem. We don’t restrict if they’re dropping off substances or suspect [sic] of the same.”
Sorry, but I don’t want to be anywhere near a hospital with this kind of policy. Who knows who might be in the bed next to me? Or what they might grab from their backpack if they get annoyed for any reason in the middle of the night. No, thanks.
The B.C. Ministry of Health issued a statement that the memo was poorly phrased. It said possession and use of controlled substances is prohibited for all “clients in emergency departments [and] any unit where clients under the age of 18 are present.” That doesn’t make me feel remotely better.
Not surprisingly, opposition parties in B.C. were using the memo last week to call on the government to end its decriminalization experiment. Mental Health and Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside defended the three-year project earlier this year, saying ending it “won’t save a single life.” And she’s probably right about that.
But the program is increasingly butting up against a burgeoning public consensus that enough is enough. There is now a broad view that open drug use has proliferated since decriminalization started, and lots of people no longer feel safe in their community as a result.
It’s worth noting that the state of Oregon recently reversed its policy on drug decriminalization. Three years ago, the state – which is one of the most progressive in the U.S. – decriminalized hard drugs through a plebiscite that had broad public support. But the harsh backlash that ensued once the program began turned the tide against the experiment.
The city of Portland became the poster child of decriminalization gone awry. Mayor Ted Wheeler recently told The New York Times that decriminalization was a “bold experiment” that was “botched” and ultimately failed.
“People are exhausted from feeling like they’re under siege,” Mr. Wheeler said. “They want order restored to their environment.”
Sounds like he could have been talking for a whole bunch of British Columbians as well.
Gary Mason