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On Jan. 31, B.C. will decriminalise personal-use quantities of heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and MDMA. Starting at the end of the month, possessing less than 2.5 grams of those drugs will no longer be illegal. The criminal status of drugs is a federal responsibility, of course, but B.C. successfully obtained a two-year “time-limited exemption” to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. According to the province, the emergency measure is intended to “reduce the barriers and stigma” related to drug addiction in a bid to curb the province’s sky-high rates of overdose fatalities. From articles I read in The Globe and Mail, National Post, CBC. Do you agree with such approach? This type of model is in Portugal with some results. Portugal decriminalised the public and private use, acquisition, and possession of all drugs in 2000; adopting an approach focused on public health rather than public-order priorities. ---> Aside from the stigma part, it most likely also costs more money to do the paperwork and host people for minor infractions, constantly the same customers probably. In the same time, is it possible this approach provides a gateway towards more criminality? Time will tell, I guess.