{"id":517560,"date":"2026-01-15T09:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T09:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/517560\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T09:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T09:05:14","slug":"british-columbia-to-end-its-drug-decriminalization-pilot-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/517560\/","title":{"rendered":"British Columbia to end its drug decriminalization pilot project"},"content":{"rendered":"

VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) \u2014 Canada\u2019s Pacific coast province of British Columbia is ending its three-year experiment in decriminalizing possession of small amounts of drugs. <\/p>\n

British Columbia Health Minister Josie Osborne announced Wednesday the province is not seeking an extension<\/a> of its agreement with Canada\u2019s federal health agency that allowed the decriminalization of small amounts of drugs for personal possession.<\/p>\n

Osborne said the goal of the three-year pilot project slated to end Jan. 31 was to make it easier for people to come forward and seek help, but it \u201chasn\u2019t delivered the results\u201d officials hoped for.<\/p>\n

Oregon\u2019s first-in-the-United States experiment with drug decriminalization<\/a> ended in 2004<\/a>, when possessing small amounts of hard drugs will once again became a crime. Oregon voted in 2020 to decriminalize. <\/a><\/p>\n

British Columbia\u2019s decriminalization project began in January 2023, after Health Canada granted the province an exemption under the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.<\/p>\n

It initially allowed adults to possess up to 2.5 grams cumulatively of opioids, crack and powdered cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Katie<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

But in 2024, the exemption was amended to restrict such possession to private homes and places where homeless people are legally sheltering, as well as designated health-care clinics and overdose prevention, drug checking and supervised consumption sites.<\/p>\n

With the end of decriminalization, Osborne said the government is focused on \u201cstrengthening the approaches that are helping people get timely, appropriate care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are building a more complete and comprehensive system of mental-health and addictions care in B.C., including prevention, treatment and recovery, harm reduction and aftercare,\u201d she said in a statement. <\/p>\n

In 2001, Portugal became the first country in the world to decriminalize the consumption of all drugs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) \u2014 Canada\u2019s Pacific coast province of British Columbia is ending its three-year experiment in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":517561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[692,2147,1613,12575,4219,20228,57,210,1141,1142,6604,230785,1612,80,4217,67,132,68,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-517560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-british-columbia","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-central-america","11":"tag-colombia","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-drug-crimes","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-health","16":"tag-health-care","17":"tag-healthcare","18":"tag-international-news","19":"tag-josie-osborne","20":"tag-latin-america","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-south-america","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115898320402411319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}