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A recent poll conducted in British Columbia has countered the narrative that criminalizing drugs is racist. Minorities appeared less bothered by the targeting of illicit drug use than Caucasians.

"Do you agree or disagree that criminalizing drugs is racist?" asked a Mainstreet Research survey, conducted on behalf of the Centre For Responsible Drug Policy and the MacDonald-Laurier Institute.

According to the preliminary findings of the Drugs and Racial Justice Report, harm reduction activists and health experts are at odds with non-white British Columbians on drug criminalization, reported True North. 

One quarter (26%) of non-white respondents considered drug criminalization racist, whereas more than half (55%) of Caucasians believed otherwise. Some 12,000 British Columbians participated in the poll.

A moderate majority of South and East Asian respondents did not find the policy racist, though the poll remains incomplete, potentially skewing the data’s conclusiveness. 

However, the insights gathered from First Nations respondents, which are considered the most cohesive, found that 68% did not find drug criminalization racist.  

A significant majority of First Nations in B.C. do not think legalizing drugs is crucial to reconciliation, it found. That contradicts a recent report by the province’s Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

It claimed drug legalization was key to achieving racial justice and that criminalizing drug use is "based on a history of white supremacy, paternalism, colonialism, classism and human rights violations." 

The Health Canada Expert Task Force on Substance Use released a report in 2021 that made similar claims. 

The Public Health Agency granted B.C. a subsection 56(1) exemption for three years under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to decriminalize people who possessed up to 2.5 grams of heroin, crack, cocaine, fentanyl, MDMA, and meth. 

From February 1, 2023, to May 7, 2024, overdose deaths totalled 3,313 on the West Coast, reported Blacklock’s Reporter. That surpassed the 2,843 deaths recorded in the 15 months before decriminalization, a 16.5% increase.

B.C. NDP Leader David Eby and John Rustad, his Conservative counterpart, called decriminalization “nonsense” on the campaign trail last month. Eby walked back his support for “safe supply” in April after heralding complaints of public disorder.

Both the New Democrats and Conservatives campaigned on promises to legislate involuntary treatment if elected.