(NATIONAL POST) – For an NDP government that was looking to take a public stand against rising rates of drug-related disorder, the “playground” amendment was arguably among the least controversial things they could have done.
B.C. was already nine months into an unprecedented pilot project to decriminalize personal amounts of illicit drugs. Fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, meth, MDMA; so long as it was only 2.5 grams, by federal exemption it was now legal to possess illicit drugs basically anywhere in British Columbia.
The “playground” amendment — enacted on Sept. 18 — dialled it back ever so slightly. You could still possess illicit drugs without consequence, but you couldn’t do it within 15 metres of a playground, skate park or “outdoor spray pool or wading pool.” Schools and “child care facility premises” had already been written into the original decriminalization order.
