A British Columbia Supreme Court Justice has granted a temporary injunction against the B.C. NDP government’s legislation banning all drug use in a wide range of public spaces, pausing the law three days before it was set to come into force.
The B.C. Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act passed in early November and was set to become law on Jan. 1. However, it would not have immediately impacted people’s lives because cabinet has not yet approved regulations to implement it.
The proposed changes would ban illegal substance use from all public parks to sports fields and beaches, as well as close to any workplaces, skate parks, pools, transit stops, residences or playgrounds — including within six metres of “a place to which the public has access” and “a prescribed place.”
But on Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson ordered the law paused until March 31, ruling it would likely result in more deaths, displacement and criminalization of people who use drugs.
Rehab doesn’t help if nothing is being done to deal with the underlying issues - a lack of stability and on-going trauma. A fair number of the homeless take drugs to escape the pain and trauma of being homeless in the first place.
And it doesn’t help that with or without drugs, nothing would change on that front no matter how hard they try – getting into permanent shelter is just too expensive for the homeless. Even the gainfully employed with full time jobs are having one hell of a time keeping a roof over their heads.
Without permanent, stable shelter that they can call their own, rehab is less effective than trying to bail out a boat with a cannon-hole below the waterline using nothing but a colander.