The City of Toronto will soon ask Health Canada for an exemption to decriminalize the possession of small quantities of drugs on its territory. The decision was made by the Toronto Health Committee on Dec. 7, after being recommended by the city’s chief medical officer, the DD Eileen from Villa.
“When drugs are illegal, people who use them may be discouraged from seeking the support they need for their use, for fear of judgment from others or criminal sanctions,” notes the medical officer of health in a report submitted to the committee. at the end of November.
Several experts – both doctors and social workers – welcomed the decision of the Health Committee. “The stigma associated with substance use is enormous and the police response has been appalling,” says Melody Grant, Harm Reduction Coordinator at Parkdale Queen West Community Health Center in Toronto. “I’ve seen a lot of people come in and out of the justice system – they’re terrified of going to jail,” she says.
The President of the Criminal Lawyers Association, Mr.e John Struthers, also expressed his support for the City’s request. “In November, 55 overdosed people were rescued at the Moss Park supervised injection center in downtown Toronto, it is unacceptable,” Duty the president of the association which represents 1,700 members.
The pandemic has worsened the opioid crisis in Ontario, where the number of drug-related deaths increased by 79% between February 2020 and December 2020, according to a report released in May by the Network for Research on Substance Policy. of Ontario Drugs. The number of drug-related deaths in Toronto was up 81% between 2019 and 2020. According to data released Thursday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, emergency room visits in Ontario due to harms caused by opioid use jumped 18% during the health crisis, compared to 2019.
Possession of drugs, except cannabis, is currently illegal under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. But subsection 56 (1) of the act allows the Minister of Mental Health and Addiction to exempt anyone from the application of part of the law’s provisions, such as possession of small amounts of substances.
On Thursday, more than 100 Canadian public health organizations called on the federal government to decriminalize the possession of drugs for personal use across the country. During a visit to Vancouver in 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ruled that nationwide decriminalization of drugs was not a “silver bullet”.
Third request
Requests similar to the one the City of Toronto will be making were submitted to Health Canada by the City of Vancouver in May and then by British Columbia in November. The City of Vancouver wants the level of permitted possession to be different depending on the substance, while the British Columbia government wants to limit possession to 4.5 grams, all substances combined.
The possession threshold chosen by the provincial government is, however, contentious. The association of provincial police chiefs considers it too high, and fears that traffickers will profit from it. “We were proposing a much lower threshold,” confirms Mike Serr, chair of the Drug Awareness Committee of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, who was part of the provincial task force. The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), an activist organization, believes the level is too low.
“The problem is, the war on drugs does not stand still. The substances got stronger and stronger, so the threshold you chose might have worked in the 1970s, but not anymore, ”suggests Garth Mullins, a spokesperson for VANDU. Overdoses from fentanyl – one of the most potent opioids – accounted for 9.3% of deaths in Ontario in 2003. As of last year, the number rose to 86.3%, according to Public Health Ontario data.
A working group made up of different stakeholders, such as law enforcement and people who use drugs, will work to determine how much should be allowed in Toronto if the municipality were granted the exemption. Although the Toronto Police Service announced its support for the Municipality’s request in a letter sent to the Chief Medical Officer of Health on November 23, a spokesperson declined to confirm which possession threshold would support it.
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.