Push Ottawa to decriminalize drug possession: councillors
Two independent city councillors want Montreal to follow Vancouver's example by asking the federal government to decriminalize the simple possession of illicit drugs.
Vancouver city council unanimously adopted a motion Nov. 25 demanding the decriminalization of drug possession.
Now Snowdon councillor Marvin Rotrand and Loyola councillor Christian Arseneault want Montreal to do the same at next week's city council meeting.
Several other Canadian cities, including Toronto, are considering similar measures.
At a news conference held by video conference Tuesday, organizations involved in drug dependency joined the two councillors to ask Mayor Valérie Plante's administration to support the motion.
The motion asks for the city to demand that the federal government decriminalize simple possession of drugs for personal use under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, and create a national advisory body with input from advocacy groups.
It also calls on the city to ask Montreal police to join the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police in recognizing that the use of illicit substances is first and foremost a public health issue.
Drug overdoses and deaths have been on the rise in Montreal, as in many other Canadian cities, with an increase in potent opioids such as fentanyl, the motion notes.
“We are stuck with an approach that clearly is not working,” Rotrand said.
Criminalizing drug possession does not reduce substance abuse, but only stigmatizes users, said Sandhia Vadlamudy, executive director of the Association des intervenants en dépendance du Québec (AIDQ).
“It is urgent to act now. We cannot wait,” she said.
Advocates note that Portugal has succeeded in reducing overdose deaths since it decriminalized drug possession in 2001.
In November, Montreal public health director Mylène Drouin released a survey showing a sharp increase of substance abuse in the Montreal region, particularly among young people, during the COVID -19 pandemic.
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, the pandemic is worsening the already deadly crisis of opioid overdoses.
There were 1,628 apparent opioid toxicity deaths between April and June 2020 — the highest quarterly count since record-keeping began in 2016, and a 54 per cent increase over the year-ago period, the agency reported.
Arseneault pointed out that alcohol is one of the most harmful drugs, yet it is legal. “There's this mismatch between what's illegal and what's harmful,” he said.
Richard Elliott, executive director of the HIV Legal Network, noted that 69 per cent of drug arrests in Canada from 2014 to 2019 were for simple possession.
The growing movement for decriminalization will put more pressure on the federal government to act, he said.