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The B.C. government has tabled a bill to regulate the use and ownership of pill presses and related equipment in its latest effort to combat the province’s overdose crisis.

Bill 27, the Pill Press and Related Equipment Control Act, would essentially restrict use and ownership of the equipment to authorized health professionals, such as pharmacists. It mirrors similar legislation enacted in Alberta and Ontario.

Federal legislation that became law in May, 2017, already restricts the importation of pill-press equipment. But B.C. Public Safety Minister and Solicitor-General Mike Farnworth said Wednesday that police had asked for more control and monitoring of the equipment once it’s in the province.

“Law-enforcement authorities have identified some significant loopholes in the federal legislation, which this piece of legislation that we are tabling today will plug,” Mr. Farnworth said when introducing the bill.

He elaborated later, telling media that the federal legislation didn’t track the individual purchasing the equipment; one only had to register as an importer.

“What this legislation will do is allow for the creation of a registrar that will be able to look at who’s actually buying them; those records have to be kept [and] background checks will have to be done on who’s selling these,” he said.

The overdose crisis that has swept Canada, hitting British Columbia particularly hard, is being driven overwhelmingly by illicit fentanyl. Traffickers import the drug, most often in powder form, and press it into pills or cut it into other drugs domestically.

In opposition, Mr. Farnworth tabled pill-press legislation in the summer of 2016, but the Liberal government at the time did not act on the the private member’s bill. Then-premier Christy Clark instead called on the federal government to restrict the equipment, saying it made little sense for a province to go it alone.

If adopted, the new legislation would mean a person who wishes to own or use a pill press could be subject to a criminal background check before being authorized, and inspections for compliance once in possession. The equipment could be seized if found to be used for a purpose for which it was not authorized.

Penalties range from a fine of up to $200,000 for a first conviction to imprisonment for up to six months for multiple convictions.

Alberta’s equivalent is the Pharmacy and Drug (Pharmaceutical Equipment control) Amendment Act); Ontario’s is the Illegal Pill Press Act. The federal legislation – Bill C-37, which made amendments to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act – requires every pill press imported into Canada to be registered with Health Canada, and this information can be shared with law-enforcement agencies in investigations.

Calgary Police said an investigation into a “dial-a-dope” operation last fall resulted in the first charges under that province’s pill-press legislation against a husband and wife.

Law enforcement officials in B.C. have for some time expressed frustration over the unregulated equipment. Sergeant Darin Sheppard of the RCMP’s Federal Serious and Organized Crime Synthetic Drug Operations told The Globe and Mail in 2016 that while police had concerns over pill presses, large-scale scientific glassware and other equipment, they didn’t want to encumber legitimate industry with extra regulations.

Reached Wednesday, Sgt. Sheppard said the RCMP and its law-enforcement partners viewed B.C.’s Bill 27 as positive legislation that will further restrict access and increase penalties to criminals.

“The legislation is balanced in that it still allows the limited number of legitimate businesses access to this type of equipment, while providing fines and terms of imprisonment for those that would illegally use pill presses in a manner that is reflective of the deadly nature of the opioid crisis facing British Columbians,” Sgt. Sheppard said.

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