Despite all the shouting, the opioid crisis continues to defy simple answers

The debate in Parliament about British Columbia's experience with drug decriminalization was already operating at extremes before Pierre Poilievre used the term "wacko."

During question period on Monday, the Conservative leader said the Liberal government had unleashed «drugs, disorder, death and destruction.» Other Conservative MPs said the Liberals were pursuing a «horrific» and «radical» experiment.

«Will the prime minister prioritize recovery and stop killing Canadians with his radical ideology?» Conservative MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay asked.

Health Minister Mark Holland stood and suggested partisanship should be put aside in the face of an epidemic of opioid addiction and overdose deaths. When the minister sat down, Conservative MP Todd Doherty stood up to claim the prime minister's «extremist drug policies» had «turned our neighbourhoods into war zones.»

On Tuesday — shortly before he was ejected from the House of Commons — Poilievre suggested that the increase in overdose deaths in B.C. in recent years can somehow be laid at Justin Trudeau's feet.

«Will the prime minister reverse his extremist policies and the death they bring?» the Conservative leader asked.

The approximate cause of this rancour is a decision the B.C. government announced five days ago.

In November 2022, at B.C.'s request, the federal government granted the province an exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to decriminalize the personal possession of some hard drugs — part of a three-year «pilot project» aimed at fighting the opioid epidemic. That change went into effect in January 2023.

Last Friday, apparently in response to concerns about open drug use and public disorder, B.C. asked the federal government to amend the exemption in order to