MLA for Chilliwack-Cultus Lake calls on B.C. to end ‘madness’ of decriminalization
Published 4:36 pm Wednesday, November 5, 2025
By Jennifer Feinberg, The Chilliwack Progress
Á’a:líya Warbus, MLA for Chilliwack-Cultus Lake, rose in the B.C. legislature this week to ask the NDP government to put an end what she called “decriminalization madness” and the “so-called safe supply.”
Warbus spoke with determination during question period on Nov. 4, taking on a topic that she said was “extremely personal” for her, her family and her community. “We live in a time right now where the leading cause of death for young people is overdose,” Warbus said. “I am beyond angry at the failures of this government to address this issue.”
The Conservative MLA noted that she has shared publicly on previous occasions “how personal” the subject of drug-related fatalities are for her, her family and community. “I don’t know how many funerals that members have had to go to for young people in their lives, who’ve died alone because of toxic drugs, but I’ve attended way too many,” Warbus said, her voice tinged with pain. “The premier said that decriminalization is a failure. I completely agree.”
Warbus was speaking in Victoria on the day that the monthly and year-to-date statistics came out from BC Coroners Service. A total of 158 British Columbians died in September 2025 due to unregulated drug toxicity, in the preliminary numbers released Nov. 3 by the BC Coroners Service.
In Chilliwack there were 28 drug deaths as of the end of September 2025. “So what are we waiting for to end decriminalization and so-called safe supply. What are we waiting for to end this madness in our province today?” the MLA concluded, and sat back down.
A special data set contained in the latest coroners’ report, showed that “poisoning from unregulated drug toxicity” was the leading cause of unnatural deaths among youth from 2019-2023, followed by deaths by suicide and car crashes.
Warbus posted some commentary about the year-to-date total of drug deaths: “In Chilliwack, at least 28 lives have been lost this year alone,” the MLA said. “Each number represents a son, a daughter, a friend, a neighbour, and a community in pain.”
In 2025 among youth (18 years and younger) suspected drug-toxicity deaths in the window between January and September increased from 17 deaths reported in 2024 to 20 reported in 2025. In 2025, deaths among those between the ages of 30 and 59 accounted for 69 per cent of drug-toxicity deaths in the province, and 78 per cent were male.
“Families are grieving while government policies continue to fail the people they claim to help,” Warbus said in her post. “Chilliwack, and communities across B.C., deserve wrap-around recovery treatment immediately and real hope — not failed experiments.”
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