It's time to end the misguided war on drugs
If the aim is to reduce harm, and not to control marginalized groups, the path forward is clear, Ted Rutland says.
In 1994, a front-page article in the Montreal Gazette examined the effects of the war on drugs in the city. A “zero tolerance” campaign begun in 1991, the article found, had expanded police arrests of poor people who use drugs and street-level dealers. Quoting the chief of the Ottawa police and a Montreal criminologist, the article reported the view that it was time to end “zero tolerance,” decriminalize certain drugs and focus resources on preventing drug-related harm. It was also suggested that the criminalization of the drug trade was the source of much of the violence associated with it.
Almost three decades later, cannabis has been partially legalized, but the war on other drugs continues amid increasing evidence of the dangers and injustices it entails. Last month, a major investigation by Vice News found that Black and Indigenous people are the foremost targets of the war. In Vancouver, Regina and Saskatoon, Indigenous people are six to eight times more likely to be arrested for a drug offence than a white person. In Toronto and Ottawa, Black people are three to four times more likely to be arrested than a white person.
Precise numbers for Montreal are unavailable. The SPVM, the largest big-city police force per capita in Canada, claimed it “does not have the necessary resources” to provide data to the investigation. Given what we know about police stops — namely, that the SPVM is four to five times more likely to stop a Black or Indigenous person than a white person — we can assume the situation is no better here.
These findings should surprise no one. The policing of drugs, including alcohol, has often targeted particular racial or ethnic groups. Montreal's 18th century tavern laws made it illegal to serve alcohol to Indigenous people, Black people or indentured servants. In the second half of the 19th century, a new “morality” campaign made public drunkenness the leading cause of incarceration at the Montreal jail. The campaign particularly targeted taverns where Irish workers congregated, leading to Irish people being sent to jail for this offence at twice the rate of other groups. In the 20th century, a range of drug scares were associated with racialized communities, from the opium scare of the early 20th century (Chinese people) to the crack crisis of the late 1980s (Black people).
If anything has changed over time, it's that, today, two realities are incontrovertible. First, the idea that policing can significantly reduce the availability of drugs is nonsense. Despite continued police operations, drugs are just as widely available today as they were 30 years ago.
Second, we know that some of the gravest harms associated with drugs are caused, not by the drugs themselves, but the war on drugs. Drug overdoses, for example, are caused by an impure and often toxic drug supply, a problem that stems from police seizures of clean drugs and the clandestine nature of the drug economy. In Quebec, there were 547 overdose deaths in 2020 from opioids alone — casualties of a misguided and cruel war on drugs.
If we're really concerned about reducing drug-related harms rather than controlling marginalized groups, the path forward is clear. The war on drugs needs to end and measures to ensure a safe supply of drugs are needed.
While much of the onus falls on the federal government, cities have the power to act as well. Both Vancouver and Toronto have applied to the federal ministry of Health for an exemption from the requirement to enforce drug possession laws, and it looks like the exemption will be granted. Montreal should do the same — and more.
There is no excuse to continue a war on drugs that many people even three decades ago could be recognized as misguided, unjust and harmful.