Permissive Canadian city that legalized drugs is so awash with substances that crows are getting high on its streets
A permissive Canadian city is so full of drugs that even its birds have been seen getting high on the streets.
Crows in Prince George, British Columbia have been finding opioids left over by addicts in the crime-ridden city.
The city decriminalized possession of drugs in a disastrous woke 2023 pilot program which it chose not to renew in early 2026 – but the consequences continue to be felt locally.
A shocking video shared to social media shows a twitching bird prone on the ground with its head bowed after consuming the drugs.
The problem has become so widespread that volunteers from animal rescue group Good Caws Crow Rescue Society have been forced to carry naloxone, an overdose-reversing medication usually used to save the lives of human beings.
Volunteer Dayna Slater says the group has dealt with more than a dozen suspected drug overdoses among crows this year.
‘It’s disheartening, it’s scary,’ Slater told the CBC.
‘It’s a whole bunch of factors coming together to make, like, the perfect storm.’
Slater said overdosing birds are showing up in increasing numbers in an area of Prince George where illegal drug use is known to occur.
Crows in Prince George, British Columbia have been finding opioids left over by addicts in the crime-ridden city
The problem has become so widespread that volunteers from animal rescue group Good Caws Crow Rescue Society have been forced to carry naloxone
Prince George is notorious for illegal drug use. The BC premier decriminalized drugs in 2023
The stricken crows can be seen with their wings spread wide, eyes shut and with extremely slow heart rates. Some birds have died as a result of overdoses.
They remain alive but appear completely unresponsive. In some cases, she said, a brown liquid foam has emerged from their beaks.
Slater believes the birds are picking up traces of toxic drugs from garbage left exposed on city streets.
‘A crow doesn’t know the difference between a sandwich bag and a bag that had something in it,’ Slater said.
And the amount required to cause harm can be tiny.
‘It takes something the size of like a grain of sand to affect a bird,’ she said.
Slater said most of the birds treated by the rescue group have recovered sufficiently to be released within 24 hours.
Veterinarian Dr Kaitlyn Liukaitis, of Birchwood Veterinary Clinic, has treated some of the birds and said their symptoms are consistent with toxic drug exposure.
In January 2023, British Columbia premier David Eby decriminalized drugs in the province – a move he later admitted was a mistake.
‘I was wrong on drug decriminalization and the effect it would have,’ he said during a speech in October 2025.
‘What it became was a permissive structure that… it was okay to use drugs anywhere that resulted in really unhappy consequences.’
In Prince Georg, overdose calls have at times tripled, contributing to a constant backdrop of emergency sirens throughout the city. Now, according to Slater and others in the local veterinary scene the consequences are turning up in the city’s wildlife
They advocate safe indoor spaces where people can access and use drugs – reducing the likelihood that dangerous substances and the drug related waste will be left exposed outdoors
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How should cities balance drug policies with public health and safety when both people and wildlife are suffering the consequences?
However, after decriminalization of possession was put in place, British Columbia became a mecca of open-air drug use.
And while British Columbia chose not to continue with the pilot program in 2026, the province and its cities remain plagued by criminality and squalor as a result of the experiment.
The Daily Mail has contacted David Eby for comment.
