Government polling showed Canadians' drug decriminalization fears

Months before British Columbia sought to scale back its drug decriminalization pilot project, the federal government's own polling suggested to officials that a majority of Canadians believed the policy would lead to an increase in overdoses. 

The results of the 11-page survey by the Privy Council Office, the wing of federal bureaucracy that supports the Prime Minister's Office, also suggests Canadians were split over whether decriminalization would make their community any less safe. 

"I guess what people are thinking is that [decriminalization] will somehow enable drug use," said Thomas Kerr, a professor and head of the division of social medicine at the University of British Columbia and the director of research at the B.C. Centre on Substance Use. 

Similar opinions were expressed over supervised drug consumption sites and even needle exchanges, Kerr said, adding that fears they would lead to increased use didn't play out "in reality."

"People have really overestimated the impacts of decriminalization, both positive and negative," he said.

Decriminalization has grown into a political lightning rod over recent weeks after the B.C. NDP government reversed course and asked that police again be empowered to arrest people or seize illicit drugs when they are being used in public spaces.

The move followed months of concern over public drug use, including inside hospitals. 

The federal Conservatives have seized on the issue and pressed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals to rule out granting a federal exemption to any other jurisdictions wishing to pursue decriminalization programs in an effort to curb opioid deaths.

Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre describes the policy as the legalization of hard drugs. 

Federal Mental Health and Addictions Minister Ya'ara Saks has defended the decision to allow B.C.'s pilot project as one tool to combat the overdose crisis, which she says is being fuelled by an increasingly toxic drug supply. 

She recently rejected Toronto's longstanding application to undertake a similar program, telling The Canadian Press it was because its application lacked limits on the amount of drugs an individual could possess and any age restrictions.

There is currently no new application from the city or from places like Halifax or Montreal, Saks recently told the House of Commons after being pressed by the Tories. 

"People are dying because of street drugs; they are not dying because of decriminalization," Saks said. 

More than 40,000 people have died from opioid-related deaths since 2016, which is when Health Canada started tracking what Kerr called "Canada's worst public health crisis in modern history."