Bold Experiment or Safety Risk? Canada Is Divided on How to Stop Drug Deaths.

The mood was cautiously optimistic and the message was simple: Drug decriminalization saves lives.

People who used or carried small quantities of illegal drugs in plain sight would no longer face arrest in British Columbia, the nexus of Canada’s opioid crisis, officials announced two years ago.

So bold was the experiment, even in a province known for pioneering addiction policies, that its public health officer said she was in disbelief the day had actually come.

But decriminalization, a policy introduced as a way of alleviating the opioid crisis, has instead been blamed for deepening it. Scenes of people openly using drugs on city streets have led several elected leaders, other critics and even some supporters to say that decriminalization is contributing to a sense of public disorder.

“Our goal was to save lives,” British Columbia’s premier, David Eby, said at a recent news conference. “But that compassion, that concern for people who are struggling, does not mean that anything goes. We still have expectations around safety.”

In May, the federal government, which regulates controlled substances, approved a provincial request to reverse the policy and again make public drug use and possession in British Columbia a crime.