B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne announced on Wednesday that the province will not be asking the federal government to renew the exemption that enabled the decriminalization of small amounts of drugs.
This ends the three-year pilot program, effective Jan. 31.
“From the beginning, this pilot was designed as a time-limited trial with ongoing monitoring built in, so we could understand what was working, what wasn’t and where changes were needed,” Osborne said Wednesday (Jan. 14). “However, the pilot hasn’t delivered the results that we hoped for.”
Decriminalization began in January of 2023, allowing people to possess small amounts of illicit drugs in certain places without fear of arrest. Initially, the program included drug possession and consumption in both public and private spaces, but was changed a year later to exclude public use after backlash.
Since then, drug use and possession of up to 2.5 grams of opioids, such as heroin, morphine and fentanyl, crack and powder cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA (ecstasy) have been permitted in private residences, shelters and safe consumption sites.
Despite the end of decriminalization, supervised consumption and drug checking sites will still be able to operate under a separate, previously existing exemption, Osborne said.
Little evidence provided of whether decriminalization helped or hurt
Osborne strained during the announcement of the program’s end to provide evidence of how the program had failed, and what data the province had or was using to make that determination, other than to say it was “not providing the results we wanted to see.”
She even highlighted some of the program’s successes, such as fewer arrests and increased use of safe consumption sites. But ultimately, she said there was not enough of “measurable” decreases in people’s stigma and fear of accessing services, and that the public conversation about decriminalization had become “very challenging.”
DJ Larkin, the executive director of Simon Fraser University’s Canadian Drug Policy Coalition project, says there is nothing in the government’s own reports or messaging that justifies a return to arresting and charging people for drug possession.
“To be frank, this is a political decision, not an evidence-based decision,” Larkin said. “And it’s a cowardly one at that.”
Larkin said no analysis shows a causal link between decriminalization and increased overdoses, nor is there a clear indication of a link with increased street disorder.
And many questions remain. Listening to Osborne’s messaging, Larkin is unsure if the change will mean an immediate return to actual criminal charges.
But Larkin warned of negative impacts even if it doesn’t, saying criminalization will push drug use behind closed doors, where people are less likely to be found in the event of an overdose.
The majority of fatal overdoses in B.C. already happen behind closed doors. In the first 10 months of 2025, 77 per cent of fatal overdoses happened inside, compared to the 21 per cent outdoors in vehicles, on sidewalks or on streets, according to B.C. Coroners Service data.
And it could make people more reluctant to seek care, especially users who have jobs they don’t want to lose, or students attending university who don’t want to risk expulsion.
“We know that it’s not just people with substance use disorder, and not just people who are without housing who are at risk,” Larkin said. “People in trades, people in transport, people in those heavy labour industries are very much at risk.”
The coroners service also collects occupation industry information in its fatal overdose data. Trades, transport and equipment operators have remained the most impacted industry, accounting for an average of 21 per cent of fatal overdoses between 2022 and 2024.
Osborne reiterated many times during the announcement that, despite recriminalizing possession, the government continues to view addiction as a health issue, not a criminal justice issue.
“We are taking a health-first approach,” she said. “And that means the police will continue to use the expertise, the judgment, the discretion that they have in dealing with individuals and making a decision to help them move along, for example, to an overdose prevention site.”
Independent MLA Elenore Sturko, a vocal critic of the government’s mental health and addiction policies, says this could result in “de facto” decriminalization if Crown prosecutors aren’t directed to charge for simple possession.
Sturko wants recriminalization to be used to target and curb street disorder, which she believes has increased in the three years since the government stopped arresting people for possession.
“I would like to see more discretion being given back to the Crown to entertain charges for possession and circumstances where there are associated behaviours that are a harm to communities,” she said.
While Sturko and Larkin may disagree on the impact of decriminalization and whether the program should continue, they both want a thorough critical examination of what went wrong.
Larkin says the government ought to be working on how to fix the program.
“The lesson we need to learn is ‘how do we do this better,’ not stop doing it,” Larkin said.
Sturko wants the government to stick to its word and provide the data.
“One of the things that’s actually a huge failure of this experiment is that we were promised robust data and scientific study, and it never materialized,” She said.
Claire Rattée, B.C. Conservative critic for addictions policy, issued a statement after the announcement, calling decriminalization a failed “policy experiment,” also pointing out the lack of data being released and the absence of a clear plan.
“After three years of disorder and chaos, the NDP government cannot even provide the number of people who were directed to treatment options,” Rattée said. “British Columbians deserve clarity on how the government will address this crisis moving forward.”