By David P. Ball
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A new opinion poll has revealed a massive shift in public views around the drug poisoning emergency, with a solid majority of Canadians country-wide supporting the full decriminalization of all illicit drugs, according to the Angus Reid Institute.

And that support is greatest in B.C., which has been the deadliest epicentre of a health crisis declared an emergency almost five years ago, said Angus Reid Institute research director Dave Korzinski in an interview with The Pulse on CFRO.

In Canada, of the more than 5,000 adults surveyed, 59 per cent said they support decriminalizing all illegal drugs. In B.C., that number rises to a full two-thirds of residents, the same supermajority of support that exists in the province for safe injection sites.

Supervised consumption sites, though controversial in every city across the country, actually garnered 65 per cent support nationwide, suggesting opponents could be merely a loud and vocal minority. Only 45 per cent of the public believe the solution is "getting tough" on drug users, the lowest it's ever been.

B.C. is also home to the most number of people who reporting losing someone they knew to an overdose, with more than one-in-ten saying someone they know died in the last five years.