Drug Legalization

The southeastern Ontario city of Belleville has declared a state of emergency after a rash of overdoses over a 24-hour period that prompted warnings from police this week.

Belleville Mayor Neil Ellis says the declaration on behalf of city council was made because of the growing addiction, mental health and homelessness crisis in the city and its impact on emergency services.

Ellis says municipal services are close to a breaking point and he is calling for support from provincial and federal governments.

All of Canada is suffering a death of despair under the Trudeau government.

A little more than three years after Oregon voters made their state the first jurisdiction in North America to decriminalize drug possession, legislators are scrambling to write a new set of laws amid a public revolt against the state’s experiment with rapid drug policy liberalization.

Tim Hortons is one of Canada’s most iconic brands. It’s a place to grab a double-double, a Boston cream donut, and catch up with friends. It’s also increasingly a place to do hard drugs—at least when it comes a Tim Hortons location in the city of Oshawa, just west of Toronto, that has had to close its indoor dining because too many drug users were injecting and being violent throughout the restaurant.

“It’s the darkest part of our country happening on the site of one of the businesses that is the pride of Canada,” wrote Joe Warmington in the Toronto Sun. “The fact that a Tim Hortons has decided it’s better to not let people dine in says all we need to know about the mess we are in.”

As Ontario continues to see a major escalation in issues surrounding mental health and addictions, some say a decision at an Oshawa Tim Hortons to stop dine-in eating further underscores a need for more funding and resources.

Canadian harm reduction activists believe that “safer supply” can reduce overdoses and deaths by providing addicts with easy access to “safe” pharmaceutical opioids—but we already tried this experiment 20 years ago. It was called the OxyContin crisis and it had nightmarish results. So why are we making the same mistakes all over again?

Early last year, British Columbia decided to decriminalize personal amounts of illicit drugs under the misguided belief that this would mitigate overdoses and deaths. While the drug crisis in Canada is horrific and drastic action is sorely needed, the decriminalization experiment has been an absolute disaster.

Deaths have only continued to skyrocket and public safety has rapidly deteriorated. Violent crime is rising, and discarded syringes and other drug paraphernalia have become common sights—including on playgrounds and other family-oriented spaces.

The British Columbia Supreme Court has blocked new provincial laws against public consumption of illegal substances.

The Dec. 29 ruling in favour of the Harm Reduction Nurses Association imposes a temporary injunction until March 31, pending a constitutional challenge, with the judge saying “irreparable harm will be caused” if the laws come into force.

A new study shows a statistically significant increase in aggravated felony assaults in vicinities where these establishments operate.

Only two government-sanctioned “safe-injection sites” operate in the U.S., one in East Harlem, the other in Washington Heights. Their impact—on both those who use their facilities to inject hard drugs under medical supervision and on the neighborhoods where they are located—is thus of national significance. Other states, cities, and the federal government are doubtless closely watching these two experiments. That is why a new research paper on the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open site is so important and why it has received so much attention.

London and other UK cities risk becoming like drug-ravaged San Francisco because of a surge in super-strength synthetic opioids, one of Britain’s most senior policing figures has warned.

Donna Jones, who chairs the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, said the epidemic of drug overdoses in the California city offered a stark warning of what the UK might face as a result of global changes in the illegal drug market.

The harm-reduction movement has lost the trust of many Canadians amid allegations of poor research, irresponsible facility management and even criminal activity. While harm reduction can, and should, have a place in addiction policy, advocates need to demonstrate to Canadians that their sympathy will not be taken advantage of.

In November 2020, Oregon passed Measure 110, decriminalizing non-commercial drug possession. The state also significantly increased funding for recovery and harm reduction programs. It sounded like a great plan to voters, so it passed with 60 percent approval.

The deadliest, most addictive drug in history was introduced to a vulnerable population just as the state decriminalized drugs

When Oregon voted to decriminalise possession of hard drugs such as heroin, cocaine and crystal meth three years ago, campaigners hailed the move as a brave step towards ending the failed war on drugs.

Yet hope has given way to a grim realisation that the policies appear to have failed, with soaring overdose deaths and the state’s biggest city, Portland, suffering from crime and squalor.

Guy Felicella was 12 years old when he first tried drugs – sharing a joint with some buddies. Marijuana quickly led to LSD. LSD led to cocaine, which led to heroin. Harder drugs led to a harder life. He became involved with gangs. His rap sheet would eventually reflect the unrelenting hold narcotics had on him, one that thwarted many attempts to leave drugs behind.

His criminal record includes 55 convictions, all drug-related, all for possession for the purpose of selling or simply consuming himself. Including the time he spent in juvenile detention centres, Mr. Felicella figures he has spent seven to eight years of his life in jails of one sort or another.