Poilievre says he would launch lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies over opioid crisis

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says that if he became prime minister, he would sue pharmaceutical companies, to recoup the financial toll the opioid crisis has taken on communities across the country.

Poilievre made the pledge Tuesday in New Westminster, and he has routinely criticized Metro Vancouver’s approach to the opioid crisis, once calling the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood “hell on earth.”

Related Article: Eby pushes back on Poilievre’s characterization of Vancouver being ‘hell on earth’

The Tory leader says the federal and provincial governments are contributing to the problem by offering a safe supply of drugs to some users and decriminalizing small amounts of certain illicit substances.

Drug policy experts say such measures are needed to mitigate a toxic drug supply that has led to thousands of preventable overdoses and deaths.

Poilievre says he opposes offering “taxpayer-funded drugs” that he argues are “flooding our communities,” and says he would instead focus on providing users with more recovery and treatment options.

He says that to pay for that, he would launch a $44 billion lawsuit against the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the prescription drugs that led to the opioid crisis.

“We will join British Columbia’s lawsuit in order to recover the federal health costs that have resulted from Big Pharma’s dirty and disgusting actions against our communities. We will launch a separate federal lawsuit to recover money that the federal government has had to spend,” he said.

“These powerful multinationals knew exactly what they were doing, but they kept doing it anyway to profit themselves and their wealthy executives. They destroyed thousands of lives.”

When asked whether he intends to change the current rules around supervised consumption sites — where users can bring drugs to inject or inhale under the watch of staff — Poilievre would only say that “the existing overall system has failed.”

Related Articles: 

• Vancouver is not ‘hell on earth’: Mayor pushes back against criticism

• Over 210 British Columbians killed by toxic drugs in January

• Adastra cocaine controversy sparks safe supply conversations 

Last year, Purdue Pharma reached a nationwide settlement in the U.S. that’s worth a maximum of USD $10 billion, and Purdue Canada agreed to a $150 million nationwide settlement after B.C. filed a proposed class action lawsuit.