The western Canadian province of British Columbia began a three-year pilot program to stop prosecuting people for carrying small amounts of heroin, meth, ecstasy, or crack cocaine, as part of an effort to fight a drug overdose crisis. 

B.C. is at the epicenter of Canada's drug overdose and trafficking crisis that has killed more than 32,000 nationally since 2016. Preliminary data showed there were 2,272 suspected illicit drug toxicity deaths in 2022, the second largest annual number ever recorded, behind 2021, which had 34 more deaths. 

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Finally some brain cells being used.

>The drugs on the exemption list, which also includes fentanyl and other opioids, remain illegal and the exemption from arrest is only for possession of up to 2.5 grams for personal use.

2.5 grams of fentanyl is considered for personal use? That's enough to kill 1250 people...

They are taking the same approach as Portland. Which to be honest doesn’t seem like it’s improving things on the streets there. They forgot half of the equation that made this successful in places like Portugal.

Hey this policy is about feelings not actually helping people stay safe and get off the streets.

I assume this would have to include all the filler, since nobody could measure a bag of mostly filler and figure out if it was 2 vs 3g of fentanyl total in there, and police are being told to eyeball the amounts.

I'm all for not harassing people with criminal charges for small possession and creating additional problems like incarceration, criminal records, etc. Nobody should have their lives ruined over a stupid coke party or whatever your drug of choice is.

That said, we need to find new ways to fight the plague that these drugs cause. Street gangs, violence, child porn and other abuse, domestic violence, robberies, murder and all those things have a strong connection to these drugs. They exist in the absence of these drugs but these problems are massively magnified by drugs.

Well access to healthcare is a huge hurdle for Americans. Culturally to accept.

Access to the kind of healthcare you need to battle mental health and addiction issues in Canada is completely inadequate. I wouldn’t be surprised if Portland has more access to services for struggling people actually. I may be totally off base but they have a huge amount of funding for this population given their size, as I understand.

Because easier access to drugs totally won't cause more issues... Let them die.

Legalize all drugs, tax them. Let people make their own taxed choices.