The following is letter sent to The City of Vancouver Decriminalization Working Group Oversight Committee following the submission to Health Canada to request an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) in order to decriminalize personal possession of unregulated substances within the City of Vancouver.

This letter was sent after the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) has stepped away from this process as a result of the failure to meaningfully engage them and their membership.

To: The City of Vancouver Decriminalization Working Group Oversight Committee

Re: City of Vancouver final submission to Health Canada

We understand that the City of Vancouver Decriminalization Working Group Oversight Committee has made its final submission to Health Canada to request an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) in order to decriminalize personal possession of unregulated substances within the City of Vancouver.

The decriminalization of drug possession has the potential to reduce the many harms of drug prohibition, including those associated with drug confiscation, arrest, and incarceration. In order for this policy initiative to achieve its stated objectives, it must be informed by and address the realities of the lived experiences of people who use drugs.

We had previously expressed our concerns about the process used to determine the thresholds included in your submission. Specifically, we were concerned that people who use drugs and the organizations that represent them had not been properly consulted and that the scientific evidence collected alongside people who use drugs was not fully utilized.

As a result, the determination of possession thresholds does not reflect the realities of people who use drugs in Vancouver, nor do they reflect what the scientific data suggests they should be.

In your submission, data from cohort studies involving people who use drugs in Vancouver—Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study (VIDUS), the AIDS Care Cohort to Evaluate Exposure to Survival Services (ACCESS) study, and At-Risk Youth Study (ARYS), as well as the Cheque Day Study (The Impact of Alternative Social Assistance on Drug Related Harm, or “TASA”)—is cited as informing the development of the thresholds proposed in your submission.

Your submission also cites the unique strengths that these research studies can bring to understand substance use and risks over time, and suggests that data from the three cohort studies could be “a platform for monitoring and evaluating the City of Vancouver’s decriminalization initiative” should it be approved by Health Canada.

However, the data provided through these studies suggested a range that would set thresholds at approximately 13 grams for opioids, 14 grams for cocaine, 22.5 grams for crack cocaine, and 19 grams for amphetamines, which your documents concluded would provide coverage for those with “severe substance use disorders” for a multi-day supply. Despite this evidence, and requests from drug user groups that they be consulted to ensure that thresholds adequately reflect their needs, the thresholds have been set much lower in your final submission: 2 grams of opioids; 3 grams of cocaine, 1 gram of crack cocaine, and 1.5 grams of amphetamines.

While there are multiple features of the City of Vancouver’s proposed model that are aligned with a public health approach to substance use and differentiate it from other models—including no administrative charges or seizures associated with possession under the thresholds— ultimately the proposed thresholds are too low and exclude the people most at risk, from both an evidence-based perspective and from the perspective of people with lived experience.

Understandably, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) has stepped away from this process as a result of the failure to meaningfully engage them and their membership. We share their concerns and can only participate in evaluation activities with data from our cohort studies if people who use drugs are full research partners and engaged in the evaluation process.

Therefore, given these present circumstances, we will not be providing data from the cohort or other studies as part of the City’s evaluation of this initiative at this time. Any data specific to the impacts of decriminalization will only be shared in consultation with and with approval from people who use drugs.

Sincerely,

Dr. Kora DeBeck
Research Scientist and Observational Research Program Lead, BC Centre on Substance Use

Associate Professor, Simon Fraser University
MSFHR/St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation – PHCRI Career Scholar

Principal Investigator, At-Risk Youth Study (ARYS)

Dr. Danya Fast

Research Scientist, BC Centre on Substance Use

Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia

Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar

Principal Investigator, At-Risk Youth Study (ARYS) Qualitative Research Program

Dr. Kanna Hayashi

Research Scientist, BC Centre on Substance Use

Assistant Professor and St. Paul’s Hospital Chair in Substance Use Research, Simon Fraser University

Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar

Principal Investigator, Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study (VIDUS)

Dr. Thomas Kerr
Senior Scientific Advisor and Senior Scientist, BC Centre on Substance Use
Professor, Head, Division of Social Medicine, University of British Columbia

Dr. M-J Milloy

Research Scientist, BC Centre on Substance Use

Canopy Growth Professor in Cannabis Science and Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia

Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar

Principal Investigator, AIDS Care Cohort to Evaluate exposure to Survival Services (ACCESS)

Dr. Lindsey Richardson
Research Scientist, BC Centre on Substance Use
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia
Principal Investigator, The Impact of Alternative Social Assistance on Drug Related Harm (“Cheque Day”) Study