OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) – The Canadian federal government’s liberal drug policies are not favorable to most living in British Columbia, the province where the new approach of allowing the possession of hard drugs is being tested, according to research conducted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s own Privy Council.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Trudeau’s recent experiment that allows the province of British Columbia to permit citizens to possess hard drugs for personal use does not sit well with most of those surveyed about the policy, as per a March 10 Privy Council report titled ”Continuous Qualitative Data Collection Of Canadians’ Views.”
“Participants were mostly negative in their reaction to this decision,” noted the report, adding that most respondents “believed the federal government should instead be focused on discouraging opioid use including implementing greater penalties for those using and distributing these substances.”
After Trudeau’s policy was implemented allowing legal drug possession in British Columbia, recent statistics show that more people aged 10 to 59 have died from overdoses than from disease, murder, suicide, and natural disasters combined.
The results from the report’s findings were gathered from Metro Vancouver area focus groups, as well as other parts of British Columbia.
A federal policy put in place by the Trudeau government in May of 2022, in effect, decriminalized hard drugs on a trial-run basis in the province of British Columbia. While the policy was approved in 2022, it did not come into effect until February of this year.
Under the policy, the federal government began allowing people within the province to possess up to 2.5 grams of hard drugs without criminal penalty, but selling drugs remained a crime.
Since its implementation, the policy has been widely criticized, especially after it was found that the province broke three different drug-related overdose records in the first month the new law was in effect.
The Privy Council’s report noted that “It was believed this initiative would ultimately result in the increased usage of these substances especially among younger adults.”
“Several also expressed concerns about the 2.5 gram limit, believing this was far too high an amount and that for substances such as fentanyl there was no safe amount for an individual to consume,” it added.
Most British Columbians noted that they are worried about social chaos in their province due to drugs running rampant. The report noted that “all” believed that increased disorder is “a significant issue and many were of the view that rising rates of addiction had contributed to increased crime in their communities.”
Overall, some 12,264 people have died from drug overdoses in British Columbia since April 2016.
Comparatively, since that same year, about 32,000 people Canada-wide have died from a drug overdose. With a nationwide population of roughly 40 million but only 5 million in British Columbia, the province is greatly overrepresented in such deaths.
Despite the seeming failures, in May Canadian MPs in a 209 to 113 vote agreed to keep in place the drug policy enacted by the Trudeau government, which more or less guarantees the “safe supply” of hard drugs to addicts in British Columbia.
LifeSiteNews reported on how some high school students in British Columbia were even given tools to snort hard drugs, such as cocaine, after a presentation that was held at their school.
In May, LifeSiteNews also reported about a Canadian man from British Columbia who opened a full-blown street store selling drugs such as crack, heroin, and meth out of a trailer. His store, however, was shut down by police after he was arrested.
A newly released documentary by British Columbia-based filmmaker Aaron Gunn, called “Canada Is Dying,” takes a hard look at the massive increase in hard drug use in both the province and nationwide.