Victoria Police Chief Del Manak says that B.C. moving to make public drug consumption illegal is "a step in the right direction".
On April 29, B.C. Premier David Eby announced that his B.C. NDP government requested the federal government to recriminalize public drug use in the province.
Victoria Police Chief Del Manak joined C-FAX 1070's Al Ferraby to weigh in on the province recriminalizing the use of illicit drugs in a public setting.
Manak says they welcome the decision and have heard "loud and clear.. from the public that there is concerns around public drug consumption".
He anticipates enforcement being initially difficult in some cases, but says that police already have a relationship with many of the individuals. Police will approach these situations with a conversation first and will only seize personal drugs and arrest individuals if nothing else is working.
In a conversation earlier this week with Premier Eby Manak says they spoke about drug recriminalization and they agreed that this will empower individuals to make better choices without fostering dependency through ease of access.
Listen to the full conversation with Victoria's Police Chief: