Overview
- Health Minister Josie Osborne said in January 2026 that the province would not seek to extend its decriminalization exemption, ending the pilot after a year of use.
- British Columbia now reports more than 18,000 drug-toxicity deaths since 2016, with a record 2,590 deaths in 2025 that left families and first responders under heavy strain.
- Health Canada narrowed the province’s exemption in 2024, limiting legal personal possession to private homes, certain sheltering locations, supervised consumption and drug-checking sites, and specific outpatient clinics.
- B.C. launched a safer-supply prescribing policy in 2020, then tightened rules in 2025 to require witnessed consumption after a ministry document, circulated by the Opposition, alleged diversion and trafficking of prescribed alternatives.
- The emergency began with the 2016 declaration after a sharp rise in fatalities, saw a brief drop in 2019, and then surged with the COVID-19 era’s toxic supply, driving today’s more restrictive approach.