By Michelle Gamage, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Tyee The federal government was in court this week listening to arguments that it made a mistake when it allowed British Columbia to roll back its decriminalization pilot project. Counsel for a coalition of 13 drug user advocacy groups argued in an application for a judicial review that Health Canada didn’t properly consider all the evidence before it when it broadly recriminalized public drug use in 2024. Canadian drug laws are set out in the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. To provincially change drug laws for decriminalization, B.C. had to ask Health Canada for an exemption under the act. It later asked Health Canada to amend that exemption to recriminalize public drug use. The process will see a federal judge examine…
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