Health Canada exempts playgrounds, splash pads and skateparks from drug decriminalization in B.C.

Under new Health Canada regulations, the possession of hard drugs will be illegal within 15 meters of playgrounds like this one in Nanaimo’s Nob Hill Park starting on Monday, September 18. The province asked the federal agency to exclude those areas from the decriminalization pilot in B.C. which started in January. Photo: Mick Sweetman / CHLY 101.7FM.

Starting on Monday the possession of illicit drugs will be illegal within 15 metres of playgrounds, spray pads, wading pools and skateparks across British Columbia.

Health Canada’s new exemptions to the federal drug decriminalization pilot project in the province are in addition to K to 12 school properties and licenced childcare centres where possession was never decriminalized.

According to data released by the province, the number of criminal offences for possession fell by 76 per cent compared to the previous four-year average after decriminalization took effect.

Premier David Eby says that these new regulations give police tools they need to help keep communities safe, and that people who use drugs in public should do so at an overdose prevention site.

“The idea that we would give police this tool to say not in this place, you're in the wrong place. Here's a place you can go, here's an overdose prevention site that is set up, that is funded, that has as a nurse, that is where you'll be safe from overdosing.”

Eby says that his government plans to introduce comprehensive legislation around the issue in the fall.

Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog says that he welcomes the steps taken by Health Canada, but says that decriminalization has been a policy failure.

“I’m not satisfied the decriminalization approach taken in British Columbia, by way of formal policy, has been successful or helpful,” said Krog. “We're not seeing reductions in deaths, we're not seeing any strong public support for it. I would argue, in most respects, it has been a failure.”

Krog says that the new restrictions are welcome as a city bylaw on public drug use would be ineffective as the city lacks the power to enforce them.

“We can pass bylaws till the cows come home, but they will have no practical impact on people who choose to consume drugs wherever we may choose to prohibit it,” he said.

Nanaimo city councillor Ian Thorpe, says while he welcomes the new restrictions he would like to see a broader prohibition on drugs in public spaces.

“I want to make boundaries clear where this behaviour should not be happening and should not be allowed and suggest other places, safe injection sites so on, no problem,” he said. But in public spaces, where people are interacting with the public and their families, I don't think it's appropriate.”

Heather McDonald, who works as an overnight peer outreach worker with Nightkeepers, says that the current overdose prevention site on Albert Street just doesn’t have the capacity for everyone who uses drugs in the city.

“There are a great deal of people who need support,” she said. “Basically, it's just much too small for the number of people that are needing help in Nanaimo.”

McDonald says that there is a need for more overdose prevention sites in different areas of the city including in the north end.

“There's a need for help all across Nanaimo, we generally work in the downtown core with Nightkeepers. But we also service the encampments, which are quite spread out around town.”

Councillor Paul Manly would also like to see overdose prevention sites established outside of the downtown core.

“I think we need sites in different parts of town, because clearly as city council we get emails from people in different parts of town that are saying that they're witnessing open drug use, from Hammond Bay, all the way to South End,” he said. “When you concentrate all the services in one area of town, it creates problems. So you need to provide services in different parts of town where these issues are occurring.”

Councillor Janice Perrino calls the new changes a great first step but would like to see drugs banned in all city parks, not just within 15 meters of a playground.

“All of our parks, all of our recreation areas have to be addressed because that's where people congregate, that's where children go,” she said. “We need to make sure that all of these areas are safe as well. It's just simply inappropriate for people to be doing drugs in any of these areas.”

Perrino says she would also like to see people using drugs limited to supervised consumption sites.

“What would be sufficient for me is to have these drugs administered in an obviously a closed selected area, a city consumption site,” she said. “That's where it should be at all times.”

Thorpe says that his support of new overdose prevention sites in the city would hinge on the specifics.

“It would depend on the parameters and how they're set up and how they're run and how they impact the neighbourhoods that they might be located in,” he said.

A permanent supervised consumption site in Nanaimo would require site-specific approval by city council. The overdose prevention site in the city operates under the authority of the public health emergency declared by the province in 2016.

Councillor Ben Gesselbract, says that while he supports the new restrictions on possession the big issue is a lack of on-demand detox and treatment spaces available in the city.

“When somebody is in the middle of a crisis and wants medical support to get off whatever substance they're using, they've got to wait a month to get into that,” he said. “That's completely unacceptable.

Councillor Hilary Eastmure says that while she supports the new amendments to the decriminalization pilot, it won’t address many residents' concerns about public drug use.

“They're not using on playgrounds, or at splash parks,” she said. “They're using it in our downtown, outside the library and in public spaces,” she said.

Eastmure says that despite that, she doesn’t support the idea of a city bylaw as discussed at the city council meeting on Monday.

“It's almost impossible to enforce and you're enforcing against people who wouldn't have the ability to pay a fine if that was the result of the bylaws,” she said. “So I still hope that we can continue the conversation about the need for safe supply, for more supervised consumption sites and for more appropriate housing and supports for the people who need it.”

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.