Top doctor calls for limits on alcohol, cannabis
MISSISSAUGA, ONT. • Ontario’s top doctor is calling on the province to immediately restrict access to alcohol, vapes and cannabis as the number of people who have died or visited a hospital due to using multiple substances has spiked in recent years.
But Dr. Kieran Moore, the province’s chief medical officer of health, also recommends Ontario decriminalize simple possession of unregulated drugs for personal use and make safer supply accessible to reduce the number of people in the province dying from preventable opioid overdoses each year.
“When we see preventable threats, like substance use, that harm too many people too young, devastate families, destroy communities, and reduce life expectancy, we must act,” the medical officer wrote in an annual report released this week.
“In recent years, some of the biggest threats to what had been a steady increase in life expectancy in Ontario have been the COVID-19 pandemic and preventable deaths related to substance use.”
Moore’s research suggests his “multi-pronged” recommendations can help officials prevent fatal overdoses and stop people, especially youth, from dangerously and increasingly using multiple legal substances.
Hannah Jensen, a spokeswoman for Ontario’s minister of health, said in an email on Thursday the government appreciates Moore’s “recommendations to restrict legal substances while decriminalizing hard drugs.”
But Jensen said they “ignore the unintended consequences and significant public safety concerns experienced by other jurisdictions that have implemented similar proposals,” though she did not provide examples.
Moore said more than 2,500 people have died in Ontario each year in the past few years due to a toxic drug supply. And the number of opioid-related deaths among teens and young adults in Ontario tripled between 2014 and 2021.
He said research has found a safer drug supply is the solution to immediately prevent thousands more from dying in the coming years.
“The system must first take urgent steps to keep people alive, such as creating safe spaces where people can use unregulated drugs and providing regulated pharmaceutical alternatives,” he wrote in the report.
“With these harm reduction responses in place, people who are using opioids may be in a position to benefit from offers of education and treatment, and to make choices that enable them to reduce or even stop their opioid use.”