Social Policy in Ontario

Reforming our approach to drugs

Posted on August 21, 2022 in Health Policy Context

Source: TheStar.com — Authors: Star Editorial Board

TheStar.com – Opinion/Editorial
Aug. 20, 2022.   By Star Editorial Board

As long as Ottawa drags its feet on the fundamental reform recommended by a task force, Canada’s drug problem will continue unabated. 

Do you know why Canada criminalized marijuana in 1923? No? Neither does anyone else.

During Parliamentary debate, a member of parliament asked what the then unknown drug was, but was told only that it was “from India” and “there is no objection to the use of it.” Marijuana was, nonetheless, added to the list of prohibited substances.

In contrast, we know why Canada criminalized opium and its derivatives. In 1907, amid a downswing in the job market, the Asiatic Exclusion League held a rally in Vancouver, blaming Asian labourers for stealing the jobs of white people.

That led to a riot in Chinatown. A subsequent government report noted that two then-legal opium dens were among the businesses seeking redress. Motivated by racist fears about the expanding influence of Asia, the Minister of Labour introduced Canada’s first federal illicit drug law, the Opium Act of 1908.

The criminalization of marijuana and opium reveals that our drug laws have frequently stemmed from abject ignorance and blatant racism, rather than from any evidence-based approach to reducing harm.

Indeed, while a 2010 study in the British medical journal Lancet found alcohol to be the most harmful of all psychoactive substances, it remains legal. This has been a sore point with southern countries since international anti-drug treaties were implemented in the 1960s.

The southern countries have bitterly complained that wealthy northern countries jealously protect the alcohol produced from wheat and potatoes grown in the north, while criminalizing the marijuana and cocaine produced from cannabis and coca plants grown in the south.

This evidence-free illicit drug “strategy” comes with tremendous costs which, incidentally, are paid by every Canadian. According to the federal government, Canada spends $2 billion a year on justice-related costs, and suffers another $5.3 billion in productivity losses due to criminal penalties.

And while study after study confirms that criminalization has no effect on drug usage rates, it has created a vast transnational network of organized crime. Global drug war deaths now number in the hundreds of thousands, and no country, including Canada, has been spared.

An increasing number of deaths are the result of the unregulated market, as illicit drugs are frequently contaminated with benzodiazepines and the potent opioid fentanyl. Last year alone, more than 7,500 Canadians died of overdoses.

Given these sorry statistics, it was encouraging to see that the federal government’s expert task force last year recommended an end to our century-long experiment with prohibition.

As its “core priority,” the force recommended Canada “immediately develop and implement a single public health framework with specific regulations for all psychoactive substances, including currently illegal drugs as well as alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis.”

One year later, no comprehensive framework for all psychoactive substances has been implemented. Consequently, we continue to treat the most harmful drug — alcohol — and one of the deadliest substances — tobacco — entirely differently from the way we treat other psychotropic agents.

As we have seen, there are historical reasons for this disparate treatment. But there are no rational, evidence-based reasons for it. As long as we continue to resist formulating a medically- and scientifically-informed drug policy, we can’t possibly execute a coherent drug strategy. And Canadians will continue to die.

As for the second part of the core priority — to regulate illicit drugs — the Minister of Health did approve British Columbia’s request for an exemption from drug possession laws, but beyond that, the feds don’t appear eager to proceed with regulation.

This will inevitably result in our spending more money on a drug war we have already lost. And Canadians will continue to die.

The task force also included as an “urgent priority” a recommendation to scale up the safe supply of illicit drugs. In the absence of a regulated market, providing users with safe, pharmaceutical-grade drugs is the only way to ensure the purity of the products and the veracity of the labelling.

To its credit, Ottawa is funding a number of safe supply pilot programs across the country. But current programs are expensive to run and involve strict protocols and limited enrolment capacity.

Safe supply programs could be scaled up dramatically by focusing them on establishments with extensive experience with drugs — notably, pharmacies and consumption sites. And British Columbia’s MySafe program has had conspicuous success by dispensing prescriptions through secure, biometrically operated vending machines.

As long as Ottawa drags its feet on regulation, it needs to try all of these measures and more. And as long as it drags its feet on the fundamental reform recommended by the task force, Canada’s drug problem will continue unabated. And Canadians will continue to die.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2022/08/20/reforming-our-approach-to-drugs.html?source=newsletter&utm_content=a05&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=0C810E7AE4E7C3CEB3816076F6F9881B&utm_campaign=top_141119

Tags: crime prevention, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical

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