Evan Saugstad: Decriminalize? There’s a Better Solution!

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Legalizing death does not have to mean the same for everyone.

What should BC expect when we hire an abnormal person to do a normal job? Abnormal decisions trying to normalize abnormal behaviours so we can then rationalize them as normal? What’s the matter, don’t understand that two negatives make for a positive? Are the oblivious in charge of running the sane asylum?

Okay, I got part of this wrong. We didn’t hire this person, rather, he was appointed to his job after ensuring that all competitors who did not meet his standards were eliminated. I have three guesses about who I am talking about, and the first two don’t count.

Our Premier, that is, and one who is quickly giving flip-flops a bad name. Premier David Eby has asked the federal government to reverse their permissions, giving him his 2023 approval to decriminalize the use of opioids in BC. He is now asking the Feds to help him bring some law and order back to BC and make opioids illegal to use in public spaces—not asking that they be made illegal to possess, not yet, but that too will come.

Hindsight can always be 20/20, but if you went back to 2023 when Premier David unilaterally declared he would make opioids legal, BC residents would have said 19 times out of 20 that he was acting abnormally, that this would not work and, more importantly, that it would end badly for not only the users but all BC. I never like to use “I told you so’s,” but so many of us did.

In January 2023, I wrote a two-part series for the Alaksa Highway News (now defunct and, with that, all their hosted articles) about the proposal for Fort St John’s “safe” injection house and the decriminalization of opioids to allow it to function. I got a lot of feedback on how insensitive I was to those who will use it and the need to be more sensitive to opioid addicts themselves.

I didn’t like the premise of a “safe” house then, and I still do not like it now, and I do separate people with an addiction from society’s problems. I know people with an addiction, both dead and still alive. They do not like their addictions or what they have become, especially those of the opioid flavour that puts their personal needs above that of anything else. My standard response to those who criticize me for my stance and are personally close to people with addiction as family, friends, and addiction workers is that if you can no longer meet their needs, help them, or change their behaviours, then why do you expect society to take over and become responsible for that you already know cannot be addressed by allowing for free drug use?

And don’t tell me it is only about more treatment centres (which we need), as no treatment centre works unless the people with an addiction agree to attend and work to be cured.

Premier Eby brought in decriminalization with no forethought or planning and now readily admits they (notice, not him) had not thought this all through. Remember his promises when he took the throne, how he was a man of change, that he would get things done, that … “just watch me.”

We did, and now we find out he is running on hot air and whims. Sadly, the backing of his NDP-led majority, which allows him to do whatever he wishes for BC, ensures that there is no debate and no accountability to provide checks and balances, which can prevent bad decisions from being made. Time and space prevent me from listing those other hasty decisions that he has had to flip-flop on and then blame others for his failures.

Wondering how or why he thought that making people with an addiction responsible for their lives and their public conduct would work to make society better when their solution tends to be one of more drugs to get through life when the going gets tough and let the rest do the tough slugging?

With Eby’s decisions comes the reality that individual freedoms and rights trump that of society. It has become more important to pander to every need of a person with an addiction to prevent them from ending their lives rather than putting the needs and rights of society first so we can, at least, address the needs of those who are in support of society.

Any solutions? Unfortunately, there are not many for those who have chosen opioids over life unless forced incarceration to try to save some from themselves. As for the problem, back to the drawing board.

I have said it before and will say it again.

Capital punishment for those who manufacture, import, or distribute large quantities of opioids (not the small amounts local pushers and users possess) is the one solution that will work, and maybe that death should be by injection of their own product. No product makes for no people with an addiction, although will never achieve 100%. Before you think this is just another right-wing crackpot idea, think again. An April 3, 2024, poll by Research Co. put most Canadians (57%) in support of capital punishment (death penalty) for some murder, with some caveats. In essence, murder is what illegal opioids accomplish. It won’t solve today’s issues, but it certainly will dry up the pipeline of people with an addiction coming to our streets. It works elsewhere, and don’t say Singapore is some third-world backwash. Literally, no illegal drug use exists there, and Singapore is one of the safest countries in the world to visit when you follow their rules.

Need to get rid of the stigmatization that opioid use brings? Absolutely not. Family, friends, employers, and coworkers have good reason to be opposed to those who use opioids and to the effect their use has on the unaddicted. Although one may wish to, you cannot separate the person from the user. Would you knowingly hire someone who you know does opioids on the weekends and then shows up Monday for work?

As for the younger generations, go back to the preaching in schools. There is no such thing as safe drugs. There is no such thing as safe injection sites. There is no such thing as never becoming addicted. Death is as easy as the first time, and if you make it past the first time, death will certainly come with another use.

Remember the old slogan “Just Say No” as it applied to the illegal and deadly drug culture? The origin is often attributed to Nancy Reagan, wife of former US President Ronald Reagan, as she responded to a schoolgirl in 1982 asking about what to do if offered illegal drugs.

Truth is, it is still relevant, still the best advice one can give, is 100% guaranteed to work when followed and stuck with. So sad, forty years later, some think it is better to “JUST SAY YES” to “safer” drugs bought, paid for and delivered by a government that does not know how to stick with the “NO.”