THE TIME IS NOW
Activists, users calling for an end to criminalization of drug use after string of overdoses,
People on the front lines of the opioid overdose crisis say they know exactly what needs to be done to save lives and tackle the “public health emergency.”
Build safe affordable housing, expedite the opening of safe injection sties, expand the distribution of overdose-reversing naloxone and drugtesting kits and increase funding for harm-reduction staff positions.
At a news conference Friday beside a laundromat in a hardscrabble section of downtown Toronto, community health workers, drug users and anti-poverty activists were also united in their call to end the criminalization of drug use. Organizers chose Dundas and Seaton Sts. because it was steps away from the back alley where Carl White Jr., a 27-year-old homeless man, died of an overdose June 22.
The message they delivered Friday was the same they brought to Mayor John Tory at a meeting 24 hours earlier at city hall.
“We asked the mayor to think about decriminalization, to get police to not come on overdose calls because people are still afraid to call 911 because they are scared of the police showing up,” said Zoe Dodd, of the South Riverdale Community Health Centre.
Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city’s medical officer of health, recently opened the door for a public discussion on ending criminal penalties for drug possession, suggesting a healthbased approach could help address Canada’s overdose epidemic.
But this week Tory said he wasn’t “particularly interested” in that conversation. “I think we have our plate full right now looking at ways in which we can provide better drug treatment, for example.”
He said the city is already building its first supervised injection site, increasing the distribution of naloxone and training first-responders on lifesaving measures.
“So, to me, to take on that particular issue, which is going to be difficult, complex, and a potentially polarizing issue, I think is . . . not timely.”
“Now is exactly the time,” Dodd said in response, noting that recreational marijuana will soon be legal in Canada.
“I think he needs to be brave. I think he needs to embrace what we’re — and the medical officer of health is — suggesting to him.”
Dodd believes politicians are afraid of serious drug reform because drug use is stigmatized, and a new approach would make the world “look a whole lot different.”
“It means we won’t need as many cops, we won’t need as many jails, we don’t need as many judges and law- yers. Right now, our system is full up with people going in and out of the justice system.”
According to a new report by the Drug Policy Alliance, there is also growing public, political and scientific consensus that governments should redirect the billions spent on the futile war on drugs to expand drug treatment and other health services.
“Decriminalization is a sound, effective solution to some of the myriad of fiscal, public health, social and public safety issues caused by the criminalization of drug possession,” says the report by the New Yorkbased non-profit organization.
It notes that several countries have experience with decriminalization, most notably Portugal.
In 2001, the country’s legislators, in response to the escalation of problematic drug use, eliminated criminal penalties for low-level possession and consumption of all drugs and reclassified these activities as administrative violations.
“Independent research of the Portuguese policy has shown promising outcomes,” the report says. “Today in Portugal, no one is arrested or incarcerated for drug possession, many more people are receiving treatment and HIV/AIDS and drug overdose have drastically decreased.”
“Now is exactly the time. I think he needs to be brave. I think he needs to embrace what we’re — and the Medical Officer of Health is — suggesting to him.” ZOE DODD HEALTH-CARE WORKER, IN RESPONSE TO MAYOR TORY