British Columbia and Drug Legalization

Proponents of drug legalization are dealing with good news and bad news.

The good news is that there’s been a steady shift in favor of marijuana legalization. The weed is now legal in many states (albeit often over–taxed).

The bad news is that there is now a backlash against legalization of harder drugs.

For instance, I wrote in March about voters and politicians in Oregon being unhappy about the consequences of decriminalization.

And I wrote last summer about voters and politicians in Portugal also having second thoughts about decriminalization.

Today, we’re going to expand that list by looking to Canada to see how voters and politicians are reconsidering decriminalization in British Columbia.

Here are some excerpts from a story by Amanda Coletta in the Washington Post.

The experiment, backed by Canada’s police chiefs, was to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of some drugs — including methamphetamine,cocaine, fentanyl and heroin — for personal use. The approach, officials said, would reduce the stigma that can discourage users from seeking treatment and the criminal records that can prevent them from rebuilding their lives. …But now, with complaints about public drug use rising and a provincial election looming, they’ve abruptly reversed course. The center-left New Democratic Party government, which championed the policy, last month received approval from Ottawa to recriminalize drug possession in most public spaces. …Advocates for decriminalization say election-year politics and misinformation have cut short a promising approach before its impact can be properly assessed. Rolling it back now, they say, will only do harm. …British Columbia suffered at least 2,511 overdose deaths in 2023, a record. More than 750 people died of an overdose in the first four months of this year.

None of this is a surprise.

I’ve always acknowledged that legalization leads to social harm.

That being said, the societal harm of prohibition is much greater than the societal harm of legalization.

And, as I wrote in 2018, “I adhere to the libertarian principle that people should be free to do what they want (even stupid things) with their own bodies.” But it appears that voters and politicians in most communities don’t share my laissez-faire preferences.