How do B.C.’s major parties plan to tackle toxic drugs and addictions treatment?

Among the issues differentiating the parties this snap B.C. election are approaches to mental health and addiction supports.

A decade into an overdose crisis that has claimed the lives of over 18,000 British Columbians, many B.C. families and advocates want policies that will slow the deaths and stop the harm.

B.C.’s major parties vying for your vote this provincial election cycle have made a range of promises to improve access to mental health supports, and offer a variety of treatment options — some considered controversial.

Garth Mullins with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users says over recent years the conflation of addiction and toxic drugs with the question of public safety has caused evidence-based policies to be walked back.

“This is a public health issue we’re talking about. With this many dead in the province, the question should be, how are we going to stop the dying?” he said.

“Instead the question is — how are we going to have less street disorder? Everybody deserves to feel safe, but the people in peril are still us, the drug users.”

The provincial NDP has been in power in B.C. since 2017, one year after a public health emergency was declared.

On the topic of mental health and addictions, its platform says “we have a lot more work to do, but David Eby’s healthcare plan is improving access to treatment and care for people.”

It says 860 new addiction treatment beds have been added since 2017, and the number of beds for youth have doubled. The party says wait times for treatment in Vancouver have been cut to one day for urgent cases, and it pledges to bring those same results to the rest of the province.

The party also says it has expanded access to treatment by making opioid agonist treatment medications free to all B.C. residents.

The platform says two involuntary care facilities have been opened across B.C., and promises two more facilities are coming.

Earlier this year, the B.C. Supreme Court ruled that elements of the involuntary care regime that allow forced psychiatric treatment, regardless of a person’s capacity to make health care decisions, are unconstitutional.

A person drives an electric scooter on a sidewalk in front of the Insite Supervised Injection Site on East Hastings Street in Vancouver on May 31, 2022. (Justine Boulin/CBC)

Promises to end safe supply

The Conservative Party of B.C. has pledged to “end the NDP’s failed ‘safe supply’ experiment and expand access to naloxone.”

The party’s platform says it would “expand detoxification, clinical treatment, recovery housing and after care” across the province, including building regional capacity for rural and northern communities.

It says that for people with severe addiction or mental health challenges incapable of caring for themselves or at risk of immediate harm, it would provide “mandatory care.”

“It is not safe or respectful to leave these individuals to suffer on the streets. They should be off the street and in care until they no longer pose a threat to themselves or others,” it said.

The party says, if elected, it would amend the Mental Health Act so officers can connect people with mandatory treatment.

Support for decriminalization

The B.C. Greens pledge to provide pharmaceutical alternatives to the illicit drug supply, enhance access to supervised consumption sites, and increase access to transitional housing projects.

It promises to “treat drug use as a health and social issue, not a criminal one, by decriminalizing possession of drugs for personal use.”

The platform says the B.C. Greens would establish an Independent Office of the Mental Health Advocate to provide oversight to the provincial mental health system.

And is says it would “create and fund an accessible, voluntary system for mental health and substance use, reducing the use of police and criminal justice resources on healthcare issues.”

CentreBC, led by Elenore Sturko, pledges to build 1,000 new supportive homes with on-site health care by 2030-31, and intensive housing for people who need the most care.

It says within 100 days, it would formally ask Ottawa to change the federal prosecution directive so that drug possession in public, and by repeat offenders, is charged.

Finally, OneBC, led by Dallas Brodie, promises to eliminate safe supply programs, cancel all new drug consumption sites, and turn current sites into drug recovery centres.

It also pledges to institute “involuntary drug rehab and housing” and roll back “all decriminalization programs.”

Critic says NDP lacked ‘courage’ to stand by harm reduction policies

The NDP’s policies to address the toxic drug crisis have undergone major shifts over nine years.

As overdose deaths climbed, the province introduced a slew of harm reduction policies, including supervised consumption sites and pilot programs that prescribed alternatives to toxic drugs.

But as those policies were met with public backlash, many were quietly, or loudly, peeled back.

In 2023, B.C. became the first province to decriminalize possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. Early this year, the province announced it wouldn’t extend its drug decriminalization pilot.

Mullins said as criticism from the political right, including from the federal Conservatives, reached a fever pitch, the NDP backed down on policies that were working.

“The NDP had the courage to allow them to happen, but not the courage to implement the things that could save us,” he said.

Kora DeBeck, a professor of substance use and drug policy at Simon Fraser University, said public support for the policies dropped as frustration with public disorder on B.C. streets mounted.

“Unfortunately, there was a perception that decriminalization increased street disorder, but there’s really no evidence that I’ve seen that makes that link,” she said.

“Decriminalization was rolled back, and yet we still have a very pronounced drug use and street disorder scene driven by a lack of housing and the toxic drug supply.“

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