Phillips says drug crisis here a complex issue
The city is facing what many have called its worst-ever drug crisis.
One of those voices is Lethbridge West MLA Shannon Phillips.
In a recent wide-ranging interview with The Herald, the second-term MLA said work the previous NDP government had done and had announced as further supports for the city’s crisis has stalled due to the UCP’s review work.
“I think that’s demonstrable with the evidence that we were starting to get the full 360-degree response to what is a very complex issue. It’s important for us to remember that we have, by a number of different metrics, the worst opioid crisis in Canada. We face one of the most complex sets of issues, with respect to this drug, in the industrialized world. So let’s start there,” Phillips said.
“We have not seen a drug crisis like this before. This is new. Synthetic opioids are new. The criminal activity around it has new patterns associated with it. It is a very difficult drug to intercept and detect; it’s highly addictive, obviously. And the strains change all the time. The first responders tell us that. In that situation, there are no palatable answers — and there isn’t one answer. And there isn’t anything that’s going to make everyone happy,” she continued.
“Having said that, there are things that we know, based on evidence, will work. One of them is supervised consumption so that people don’t die before we can help them. And so people who live in the downtown aren’t having to avoid people quite literally dying in the streets as they walk to work. People like you and I who actually live there — and people who are trying to run businesses.”
Phillips believes that and intox and detox need to be more available and with easier access. She also says Lethbridge has a homelessness crisis due to a question of affordability and lack of supportive housing.
“Forty-two units would make a significant difference to quality of life for vulnerable people,” Phillips said, referring to the NDP’s $11-million pledge last December that is under review by the current UCP government.
“This idea of it being put under review, I mean that’s just code for ‘just wait until the budget because we have to cut everything in the capital plan.’ There’s only so much money to go around and so it’s going to be people that suffer. I know that (Lethbridge East MLA) Nathan Neudorf has advocated for the supportive housing and I think it’s disappointing that Jason Kenney’s not listening to him,” Phillips continued.
“Where we were starting to get a handle on this issue, where we were seeing optimism return to the downtown, I worry that we’re now heading into a darker timeline. And that’s because we have a provincial government that doesn’t care about its responsibility to Lethbridge, to healthcare services, to housing and ultimately to the people who live and work and are trying to run businesses in the downtown.”
Phillips said she is very concerned about what the new provincial government is planning for its budget this fall.
“There’s been a lot of signals that Lethbridge is going to be left out. If they cared about Lethbridge, if they cared about this issue, and if they were actually listening to our mayor and council and our business community — if they were actually listening and didn’t have their ideological fingers in their ears while they go ‘tra la la la,’ because that’s what this government is doing — if they were actually listening, they would have committed that money,” she said.
“This government doesn’t care about evidence-based decision making or what health professionals think.”
Phillips was asked for a final thought on the drug crisis. Her response: “There has to be a response to it that is thoughtful, that actually gets to the problem. You can’t put someone in treatment who is dead. That person can’t access intox, detox or supportive housing, because they’re dead,” she said.
“I want my friends who own businesses in the downtown to be able to thrive. This is a health-care crisis and the province has jurisdiction over health care. So it’s our responsibility.”
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