Feds debating bill aimed at taking health approach to Canadian toxic drug crisis

Bill C-216 is aimed at taking a health approach to the nation’s toxic drug crisis and will be debated for the first time Wednesday.

“People are dying, and we have to save lives,” NDP’s Gord Johns emphasizes.

Johns put forward the private member bill back in December, intended to decriminalize personal drug use, eradicate drug-related criminal records, and have low barrier access to a safe supply of regulated drugs.

“We know decades of criminalization, a toxic illicit drug supply and a lack of timely access to harm reduction treatment and recovery services have caused this escalating epidemic, and it’s time to end the failed war on drugs and the failed war on drug use, because it’s not serving them.”

The province confirmed in February that last year 2,224 people died in 2021. This is another increase reported every year since 2016 when B.C. declared a public health emergency.

Read More: B.C. sets another grim record for illicit drug toxicity deaths in 2021

Johns says the feds agree the drug poisoning crisis in the country needs to be treated as a health issue, not a criminal justice one.

However, much like how the country sprung into action amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the same reaction and action plans need to be taken to combat the drug crisis.

“We showed the country we showed communities across this country, how we can respond to the COVID 19 crisis, we can do it, we proven that, that we can protect lives and react and respond. The government needs to show that same vigor, that same compassion and passion to the people that are dying from an overdose. And this is something that it’s shameful that the government hasn’t acted in the way that they need to respond to this crisis,” he said.

The official debate won’t be happening until mid-May.

In the meantime, Karen Ward, a drug policy advocate from Vancouver, says it’s about time because the country is falling far behind.

“We need to recognize that this is a whole different era … we have to recognize that this is really different from what it was, like 10 years ago. And I think that’s something that I mean, I hope we get some good, some good thinking on this, because it has really changed and I’m not seeing a lot of legislators recognize that this is not your mom’s drug war… We’ve for fentanyl analogs, these are just changing one molecule and making it a different thing. And it’s stronger and stronger, right? And then combinations of anything from like benzodiazepine variants, animal tranquillizers, to all these sorts of really, like really unusual things that we, like, people haven’t seen these before.”

If the bill does pass, officials expect it could be implemented as early as this fall.