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Decriminalization Resources
Vancouver Platform
Vancouver, November 18, 2020 – With overdose deaths still at critical levels, Mayor Kennedy Stewart unveiled a new plan to fully embrace a health-focussed approach to substance use in the City of Vancouver by decriminalizing simple possession of all drugs through a federal health exemption. “Personal possession and use of drugs is not a criminal justice issue, it is a health issue,” said Mayor Stewart. “It is time to end the stigma around substance use, help connect more of our neighbours to health care, and save lives.”
Globe & Mail
Vancouver would become the first Canadian city to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs under a new proposal aimed at reducing the number of overdose deaths.
Mayor Kennedy Stewart said the move is an “urgent and necessary next step” that would allow the city to fully embrace a health-focused approach to substance use.
Pivot Legal Society
“And for a long time, police were openly contemptuous of drug users. But here in Vancouver – sometime in the mid 2000s – they started changing how they talk. They said they were no longer against harm reduction. They wanted to seem progressive...But I’m skeptical. It doesn’t feel like things have changed all that much to me.” - Garth Mullins, Crackdown Podcast