The three-year project enabled drug addicts to wreak havoc in hospitals, parks and once-pleasant downtowns

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After ceding its public parks to drug users, its downtowns to fentanyl tent colonies and shrugging “sorry” as its people suffered countless attacks by high-as-a-kite vagrants, B.C. is finally admitting that decriminalizing hard drugs was a mistake.

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Earlier this month, B.C. Premier David Eby said that the province’s three-year decriminalization project, which comes to a close at the end of the month, will not be extended, at least not in its current form. During the experiment, B.C. adults have been permitted to carry small amounts of illicit drugs for “personal use.” While this is illegal under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the federal health minister granted a temporary exemption to the rules.

From a mile away, many people could see that this was a recipe for disaster. The prohibition on small amounts of drugs didn’t exist to punish the weak; it existed to ensure a modicum of public order. When drug use and simple possession are illegal, it gives the police clear grounds to detain and remove addicts from whatever storefront, park, sidewalk, parking lot, or other site that’s been temporarily transformed into a drug den. It also means accountability in court. When those rules are suspended, it’s much harder to keep cities from spiraling into disorder.

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