Changing the public perception about the overdose crisis will be one of the bigger challenges if the province goes ahead and decriminalizes drugs.

Decriminalization was the recommendation of Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry in her report yesterday, who believes that is a way to erase the stigma in the province.

Former Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall says if drugs are decriminalized in B.C., it has to be done carefully.

“It has to be done with awareness of the issues and you get the evidence to convince people that in fact it helps,” he said.

“It reduces problems, it reduces crime, it keeps people out of the justice system and it’s a more effective policy approach than the current one of criminalizing individuals.”

Kendall says to his knowledge, a move like this is only in effect in Portugal, where it has been successful in lowering the rates of overdose death and HIV.

“The Portuguese think it’s been very successful,” Dr. Kendall added.

“It is actually seen as a model in the European drug commission saying this is actually a model program that is very consistent with the international treaties.”

Kendall notes in Canada police do have a little bit of discretion.

“We have some degree of what you might call defacto-criminalization in Canada, particularly say in Vancouver,” he said.

“Police have discretion whether to charge an individual or not, if that person is in possession of a smaller amount of an illegal drug,” he said.

In response to Dr. Henry’s report, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said decriminalizing street drugs to lower the stigma for users is not something B.C. can do without approval from Ottawa.