Drug Legalization

Ever since Portugal enacted drug decriminalization in 2001, reformers have argued that North America should follow suit. The Portuguese saw precipitous declines in overdoses and blood-borne infections, they argued, so why not adopt their approach?

But when Oregon and British Columbia decriminalized drugs in the early 2020s, the results were so catastrophic that both jurisdictions quickly reversed course. Why? The reason is simple: American and Canadian policymakers failed to grasp what led to the Portuguese model’s initial success.

If vending machines could talk, the ones on Toronto’s Huntley Street might have some stories to tell.

Stories of despair and desperation, but also tales of discretion and self-dependence.

Located next to Casey House, a specialty hospital in Toronto that cares for people living with or at risk of HIV, the machines don’t distribute soft drinks, but instead provide supplies for people who use hard drugs, such as sterile needles, pipes and naloxone kits, as well as items for sexual health, such as condoms. They have seen high uptake, giving out 14,082 free kits since they were installed a year ago, but have also attracted controversy, with some local residents saying they’re contributing to social disorder, open drug use and violent behaviour in the area, near Jarvis and Bloor.

Junkie is a harsh term and that’s why I’m using it. It represents a harsh reality and I want to tear the sugarcoating from it. People addicted to substances who live on the streets of Canada are putting themselves and other citizens in danger every day. Activists, bureaucrats, and politicians dancing around the problem using euphemisms and refusing to acknowledge the harm caused by unchecked addiction are killing people and making the catastrophe worse.

PETERBOROUGH, ONT. — I’ve come to think that we Canadians are so polite that even though we now find ourselves living inside a real-life zombie movie, many seem afraid to raise a fuss for fear of offending the zombies.

“Sorry, sir, but I think you’re gnawing on my arm.”

Nanaimo, B.C.’s downtown drug experiment has failed to stabilize its overdose rate. It has managed, however, to line the city’s oldest streets with feces, garbage, hit-and-runs, doorway fires and damaged property — a situation so bad that city council, just last week, considered fortifying its parking lot with a 1.8-metre fence.

City council ultimately rejected that $412,000 proposal — which might be for the best, considering how everyone else in the area wouldn’t be entitled to its protection. But the fact it was even pondered to begin with is an indictment of “harm reduction” in the little city — and a warning to everyone else who wants to try it.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says his government has been discussing possible policy around involuntary care for those with substance addictions.

Moe made the comments during an unrelated news conference in North Battleford on July 9.

“We’ve seen the conversation move forward in Alberta with respect to compassionate care. British Colombia is having a discussion about it. I think very much in this province, we’ve been having much of that discussion in the weeks and months gone by,” Moe said in response to a reporter’s question on substance abuse treatments.

Victoria B.C.’s Pandora Avenue is living up to its name. Greek mythology tells the story of Pandora’s Box being opened, unleashing untold misery on the world. Only one thing remained in the Box.

A recent Globe and Mail article illustrates the rapid downward spiral of Pandora’s street-level chaos, juxtaposing addiction and other forms of mental illness and the surrounding neighbourhood’s despair over lawlessness, crime, violence and the frustration of their, so far, failed efforts to help to strengthen the community. The article dubbed the area one of the “largest open-air drug markets in Western Canada.”

“A lot more people are going to die.”

This was the dire prediction oft-repeated back in March by a busload of lawyers who supported a legal challenge filed by an injection site in Toronto that claimed recent Ontario legislation forcing the closure of sites within 200 metres of schools and daycare facilities violates the Charter rights of drug users.

Canada’s nightmarish opioid crisis has renewed calls for involuntary drug treatment. Does the government have a right to force users to get help?

As a teenager in Los Angeles, Marshall Smith earned a reputation as a party boy. He moved to British Columbia after high school and continued to drink throughout his twenties while working in the provincial corrections system, first as a guard and later in administrative roles. In 2001, he took a job doing municipal affairs with the provincial government, contributing to Vancouver’s bid for the 2010 Olympics. Then, one night in a club, he tried cocaine for the first time. He quickly grew addicted and also began using methamphetamine, a drug that provides raging, frenetic highs. Within months, his life and career crumbled. “I hung up my suit and tie and vanished into the streets,” he says.