A 2016 photo showing a mural in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, which remains an area home to drug users

A 2016 photo showing a mural in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, which remains an area home to drug users

Over 35 years as a drug user, Vancouver resident Garth Mullins said he's had "hundreds and hundreds" of interactions with police, and long believed drug decriminalization was smart policy.

"I was first arrested for drug possession when I was 19, and it changes your life," said Mullins, who is now in his 50s and was an early backer of Canadian province British Columbia's decriminalization program that ended on Saturday.

Originally published on doc.afp.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.

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