Decriminalization in British Columbia: What Are They Thinking?

As an Addictions Therapist in Vancouver for the past 30 years, I have worked on the front lines with thousands of addicts and their families.?I am also 35 years clean and sober myself, following a ghastly 15-year prescription opioid addiction of my own.?As well, the first 16 years of my recovery were spent working as an addiction counsellor in the Downtown Eastside.

I know addiction from every angle – and I have skin in this game.

For far too many years, the opioid overdose crisis has only gotten worse and worse.?One harm-reduction ‘solution’ after another has been thrown at it.?Millions of dollars (a low estimate) have been thrown at it.?Why won’t it get better?? everyone is asking in frustration.?I actually have an answer to that very important question, and here it is:

Because an enabled addict does not recover – why should they?

And now, government officials want to decriminalize possession of relatively small amounts of illegal drugs.?Worst of all, they are openly giving us the rationale that decriminalizing these drugs will give addicts the opportunity to reach out for help, because they won’t feel so stigmatized.

Really??Are you kidding me – and everyone else?

First of all, allowing an addict’s using to be easier and more comfortable will make them use more, not less.?If there are exceptions to this, they will be few and far between.

And as for not feeling stigmatized – when I was in my active addiction, I knew there was something very wrong with the way I was living my life.?I knew I was hurting myself and hurting the others around me: family, friends, coworkers, etc.?We addicts are not snowflakes, so delicate and sensitive that we can’t handle the truth of what we’re doing – especially when they are already aware of the harm they’re causing to themselves and everyone else.?In fact, what addicts really need is to be told the truth – and then offered help that will actually benefit them.?

I’ve been waiting for someone to come up with that plan, and since it seems no one else will, I’ll share mine once again – as I’ve done in several other articles I’ve posted recently.

In order for people who are still actively using to choose recovery instead, they need to receive the following:

#1 – Ongoing counselling to get underneath the addiction, to heal the trauma that has made them choose this path of self-loathing and self-harm in the first place – and begin to heal those faulty core beliefs,

#2 – A safe place to live and nutritious food to put in their bodies so their brains can begin to function in healthier ways,

#3 – Free access to a gym membership or some other fitness option for their first year of sobriety,

#4 – Job training and the prospect of viable employment when they graduate so that their self-respect can increase and their lives can be so much better,

#5 – To become part of a community of like-minded people who are also choosing to stay clean and sober – and have learned to live their lives in a much different way than they were before.

Would this be such a difficult plan to put in place??Isn’t it possible that such a plan could work??

Yes, it may be more challenging for our government officials to make this happen – so maybe that’s why they are giving up now on the people who need their creativity and care so much: the addicts who are still in active addiction.

And I say – please, please take a good look at what you are proposing with this decriminalization.?This may be the final bullet in your ongoing game of Russian Roulette.

We have been loving our addicts to death for far too long – and far too many families know this because they are grieving those losses.?

Isn’t it time to start loving our addicts – to life?

About Candace & Love with Boundaries

Candace Plattor, M.A., R.C.C., is an Addictions Therapist in private practice, where she specializes in working with the family and other loved ones of people who are struggling with addiction.

Love With Boundaries provides counselling to help families come out of the pain and suffering of addiction forever.