The province will appeal a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that temporarily blocked a law that bans drug use in most public spaces.
“After reviewing the court’s decision, we have decided to file a notice of appeal seeking to have the court’s order overturned,” Attorney General Niki Sharma said in a statement late Wednesday. The notice of appeal was filed in court on Monday.
“We are determined to keep doing everything we can to fight the toxic drug crisis and treat addiction as a health matter rather than a criminal one, while recognizing that drugs should not be used in a range of public places frequented by children and families. It is our view that the Act addresses this,” Sharma said.
In a late December ruling, Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson sided with the Harm Reduction Nurses Association and granted a temporary injunction on the law until March 31, pending a constitutional challenge. Hinkson said “irreparable harm will be caused” if the laws come into force.
The B.C. NDP passed the Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act in October in response to concerns from local mayors that rampant public drug use in parks, playgrounds and outside recreational centres was making communities unsafe.
However, the Harm Reduction Nurses Association argued the law infringes on drug users’ constitutional rights.
Premier David Eby has expressed frustration with the B.C. Supreme Court decision, saying earlier this month that it’s “profoundly concerning that we can regulate alcohol use, we can regulate tobacco use, but apparently the court has told us that we cannot regulate hard drug use in our province.”
The court battle comes almost a year into the province’s three-year pilot decriminalizing possession of small quantities of illicit drugs.
The B.C. NDP is also grappling with a drug overdose crisis that is only getting worse, with the B.C. Coroner Service releasing data Wednesday that show 2,511 people died after using toxic street drugs in 2023 — an average of seven people a day. It’s the highest number since a public health emergency was declared in 2016.
B.C. United leader Kevin Falcon on Wednesday, in a statement before the appeal was announced, blamed the government’s “disastrous decriminalization policy” for endangering lives.
