In a first for Canada, the provincial government of B.C. decriminalized the possession of small amounts of certain illegal drugs for personal use on Jan. 31.

Now, the city of Penticton has begun to look at what that will mean for the community in the future.

Penticton RCMP Supt. Brian Hunter wanted to make it clear that this would not be changing what the police were doing in the community. Dealers and traffickers, regardless of the amount they are caught with, will still be committing a crime, and the amount that people can have is limited to 2.5 grams.

“None of this is making drugs legal, and from a policing perspective it’s been a long time since we would even entertain charging a person with simple possession of small amounts,” said Hunter. “The spirit of this legislation is harm reduction and to reduce the stigma in the hopes of saving lives, and we all agree with that.

“We’ve always gone on the side of referrals and trying get our vulnerable people the help they need in regards to addictions, and that’s going to continue.”

READ MORE: Police in Penticton need help responding to mental health crises: RCMP Constable

Hunter had previously spoken to city council, both to express his support for decriminalization and later his concerns on the impact to officers’ ability to manage the open use of drugs in the community.

“The concerns that myself, the community and others may have is that there is nothing in the exemption or legislation to allow authorities to deal with the open public use of the prescribed drugs,” said Hunter. “At least with the previous legislation, we could address that without charging anybody, we could seize the drugs if they were using them in public. Now we are left with no authority in that regard.”

That issue is one that was identified in the decriminalization legislation, which pushed to allow the city to manage in similar ways to smoking or drinking alcohol.

Blake Laven, the city’s director of development services, confirmed that Penticton is currently planning how to address the potential issues.

“We are working on reviewing our current bylaws with legal counsel to ensure that the public expectations are clearly expressed and that our bylaw officers have the ability to direct the use of these newly decriminalized substances to appropriate areas,” said Laven in an email.

The plan is to develop the recommendations and then bring them and the necessary information to council at an upcoming meeting.

The decriminalization to small amounts of possession came the day of the BC Coroners Service annual report, which found that Penticton had seen another record year of deadly overdoses.

READ MORE: Another record year of fatal overdoses in Penticton

To report a typo, email: editor@pentictonwesternnews.com.