Drug Legalization

Drug crises invite a temptation to identify not drugs but their prohibition as the “real” problem. This is particularly true today, during a crisis driven by an extra-potent substance (namely fentanyl) leaking into—indeed, poisoning—the illicit drug supply. But that temptation is wrong.

I was drawn to the field of addiction by great mentors. Dr. Bruce Alexander shared his encyclopedic knowledge and was my first co-author. His rat park studies illustrated links between harmful addictions and isolation. My clinical mentor, Dr. Alan Marlatt, recruited me to the exciting first wave of research on harm reduction. Since then, I’ve been blessed by three decades of amazing clients, patients, trainees and collaborators. Together we’ve contributed to an inspiring body of evidence demonstrating ways to dramatically improve the wellbeing of people who experience addictions and homelessness. To date, that evidence has not been well communicated to Canadians. And there are more than a few people working to keep it that way.

The man who opened the first store in Canada openly selling tested heroin, cocaine, meth, and MDMA has died of an overdose.

Jerry Martin died in Vancouver on Friday, a few days after he was hospitalized due to a suspected fentanyl overdose, according to his partner Krista Thomas. He was 51 years old.

h/t XC

A Yaletown resident is suing city hall, the regional health authority and a local non-profit, alleging the “ham-fisted operation and oversight of the small, poorly suited” overdose prevention site on Seymour Street has turned the area into “a centre point for crime and public disorder.”

Second hand fentanyl sucks.
Ban open drug use.@KenSimCity @PeterMeiszner @VancouverPD @VCHhealthcare @DeputyChow @Dave_Eby @PierrePoilievre @VancouverSun @nationalpost @KevinFalcon @JM_Whiteside @Carolyn_Bennett
Close down the injection site Downtown/Yaletown. pic.twitter.com/TMvbErlm0K

— Vancouver Seedy (@SeedyVancouver) June 23, 2023

Drug-impaired driving rates have more than doubled since Parliament legalized cannabis, according to a report from the Department of Justice.

Released in June 2022, the report noted that the average rate of drug-impaired driving offences in Canada increased by 105 percent from 2017 to 2020—from nine to 19 offences per 10,000 population.

Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for people ages 10 to 59 in British Columbia after the Canadian province decriminalized several hard drugs.

Deaths from illegal drugs are now higher than homicides, suicides, accidents, and natural disease combined, British Columbia’s Public Safety and Solicitor General Ministry said Monday in a press release.

From January to May this year, 1,018 British Columbians died from drug overdoses, a 2.9% increase over that period last year. At least 12,264 British Columbians have died from illegal drugs since April, 2016, according to the ministry.

h/t XC

As shops selling magic mushrooms continue to illegally open and operate in cities across Canada, experts say some police forces are reluctant to intervene in an environment where drug policy seems to be going in the direction of decriminalization and legalization.

“It’s really a perilous situation for a police officer to take action until the government makes a decision on what exactly is permissible. And we don’t have those answers yet with respect to legalization,” said Peter Shadgett, a 30-year veteran of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).

h/t DB

For months, Mike Stolte has watched the rapid deterioration of his neighbourhood in historic downtown Nelson, B.C., a decline precipitated by activities at a nearby provincial health facility that has become a hangout for drug users.

Every day, a group of up to 20 young people gathers at the Nelson Friendship Outreach Clubhouse, where mental health and addiction programs are available. But outside, people have been selling and using drugs.

Drug legalization and a homeless problem. Looks like I picked the wrong week to give up booze.

As de facto drug legalization expands, substance abuse is driving a child-welfare crisis.

Last month, Albuquerque police launched an investigation into how they handled the case of a seven-month-old baby who died in 2022 of asphyxiation. The death was ruled accidental—the child fell between a couch and a windowsill—even though he also had methamphetamines in his system. Three other children in the home also tested positive within a few days, but authorities did not remove them—that is, until almost a year later, when police conducted a welfare check at the home, prompted by a daycare worker who reported that another child in the home had arrived smelling of marijuana twice in a week. Only then was the baby’s mother, Victoria Romero, arrested on, among other charges, child abuse resulting in death.

With its “safer supply” approach to addiction, Canada’s federal government is giving out large amounts of hydromorphone—a drug that’s too mild to satisfy many addicts, but powerful enough to attract the new drug-users getting ahold of it, says documentary filmmaker Aaron Gunn.

Each addict can receive dozens of pills daily, and many of them sell the hydromorphone to buy fentanyl, says Gunn, whose recently released film, “Canada Is Dying,” looks at the effects of “safer supply.” It’s often kids who are buying the hydromorphone, Gunn said.