In Quebec and across North America, overdoses have reached epidemic proportions. In the province, from July 2021 to June 2022, 490 people lost their lives to this other epidemic. Over the past five years, 2,268 lives have been lost in Quebec. 1
Posted at 1:00 p.m.
To end this epidemic, we need a new approach — something that municipalities like Montreal have the power to implement.
The current approach to drugs does not address the causes of overdoses. On the contrary, it aggravates them. Police continue to arrest people who possess drugs for personal use, disproportionately targeting racialized or Indigenous people over white people. This rushes individuals into a judicial process that will often leave them stigmatized by criminalization. Raids also push the black market to cut drugs known to users with unknown, unpredictable and increasingly toxic substances. Law enforcement also drives people to avoid arrest rather than practice safe drug use.
A beneficial approach, long recommended by organizations working on the street or with people who use drugs, is to look at drugs from a harm reduction perspective.
This approach advocates, among other things, the decriminalization of drugs. It’s an open secret: decriminalizing drugs reduces overdose deaths, provides better access to services for people who use them, stops the spread of HIV and HCV, and reduces stigma associated with consumption. This approach also makes it possible to tackle the overdose crisis for what it is, a public health problem.
Drug decriminalization is gaining growing support in North America and Europe. To this end, the regional director of public health of Montreal, Mylène Drouin, declared in June 2022 that it was necessary to decriminalize the simple possession of all drugs on the territory of Montreal, in particular for the health benefits that this represents. Academics also recognize the benefits of such a measure, and community organizations are outraged to demand that possession for personal consumption be decriminalized. Even the SPVM came out in favor of the solution. Unfortunately, François Legault has declared that his government will never decriminalize drug possession in Quebec.
However, Mr. Legault’s position does not prevent action at other levels – particularly at the municipal level. Both Vancouver and Toronto have asked Carolyn Bennett, the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, for an exemption from the law; Vancouver has received it, while Toronto awaits its response.
Montreal is in a contradictory position. In November 2018, the City committed to developing a municipal harm reduction strategy through its involvement in AIDS-free cities. In addition, in 2021, a resolution was drafted by Independent Advisor Marvin Rotrand to follow the lead of Vancouver and Toronto and seek exemption from drug possession laws. The ruling party, Projet Montreal, amended the resolution to call on the federal government to decriminalize drugs across Canada. The federal government, while clearly willing to grant exemptions to drug laws in some jurisdictions, is not prepared to remove drug possession from the Criminal Code.
The current administration of Montreal is therefore in favor of the decriminalization of drugs… but is not prepared to use its powers as a municipality to request an exception and ensure that the possession of drugs is effectively decriminalized on its territory.
This position is both hypocritical and deadly. Thus, since the resolution taken by Montreal, 702 people have died as a result of an overdose in Quebec.
We are exhausted watching our sisters, our brothers, our friends, our parents, our colleagues, our fellow citizens die in the greatest indifference. We want a Montreal that takes care of the people who shape it.
We demand that Montreal act immediately by asking the federal government for an exemption from drug possession laws to better protect Montrealers and take a step towards a city without overdoses.
* Co-signatories: Tania Charron, Action Jeunesse de l’Ouest-de-l’Île; Daphné Barile, Quebec Transvestite and Transsexual Health Action; Emilie Renahy, AIDS Community Care Montreal; Valérie Samson, ARCHE from Estrie; Gabriel.le Crovasce, Modular Student Association in Sexology (UQAM); Anna Aude, Black Indigenous Harm Reduction Alliance; Laurence Mersilian, Polyvalent Associative Center for Hepatitis C Aid; Vincent Roy Landry, Center des ROSÉ.S. from Abitibi-Témiscamingue; Ken Monteith and Laurent Trépanier Capistran, Coalition of Quebec Community Organizations in the Fight Against AIDS; Hélène Légaré, Coalition PLUS; Carlos X, Collective Opposed to Police Brutality; Adore Goldman, Autonomous Committee on Sex Work; Martin Pagé, Dopamine; Magali Boudon, GRIP Prevention; Nadia Joannides, Self-Help Group for HIV-Positive and Homeless People; Charlene Aubé, IRIS Estrie; Julien Montreuil, Anonymous; Mollie L-Schlachter and Mireille Poirier, the DISPENSARY; Stéphanie G-Dubé, PIaMP; Valérie Pelletier, Benoit Labre House; Ann-Marie Trépanier, Meta Soul; Patrick Labbé, MIELS-Quebec; Lateef Martin, Miscellaneum Studios; Maxime Bonneau, Street PACT; Line St-Amour, Full Middle; Guillaume Tremblay-Gallant, Quebec HIV/AIDS Portal; Adrienne Pan, Quebec Public Interest Research Group Concordia; René Obregon-Ida, Rue Action Prévention (RAP Jeunesse); Alexandre Fafard, Sidalys; Olivier Gauvin, Table of Montreal community organizations fighting HIV/AIDS; Kate Larkin, Tandem Mauricie