We will remember the summer of 2023 as the one that brought the horror of the opioid crisis in Montreal to our faces. Has the metropolis become the new Downtown Eastside of Vancouver? we’ve been hearing for a few weeks.
In several Montreal hospitals, there is an explosion in the number of cases of psychosis and overdose related to the consumption of toxic substances. And this is only the tip of the iceberg compared to what is happening in the streets, reports my colleague Lila Dussault in the series of reports that we have been publishing since Monday.
Formerly concentrated in Émilie-Gamelin Park and the Village, the presence of people addicted to fentanyl and stimulant substances (speed, crystal meth, crack) is now visible in Hochelaga, near the Palais des Congrès and in certain streets of the Quartier des Spectacles (Charlotte and Berger). One of them has even been renamed “Allée du crack “.
What amazes me in the horror that awaits us is to see that this crisis has given us a million clues of the magnitude it was going to take. You can’t blame the media for keeping it a secret.
How many columns have I written in which I described the situation affecting this sector? Each time, I was told that I was doing harm to the Village and its traders. Time has passed, the dealers have done their horrible job, the overdoses have multiplied, the victims too.
Of course the COVID-19 crisis hasn’t helped. For three years, the competent resources have concentrated all their energies on managing this other alarming situation. In Quebec, in the field of health and social services, we put out one fire at a time.
But the observation that we make today is the following: how could we have come to this?
This crisis affects the entire planet. Everywhere in urban centers there are neighborhoods where populations who have become entirely dependent on drugs are concentrated. cheap manufactured by unscrupulous criminals.
Faced with this disaster, some are looking for those responsible. This is the case of Pierre Viens, former owner of establishments in the Village, who expressed his anger on social networks by saying that he “accused” Valérie Plante, mayoress of Montreal and the borough of Ville-Marie, Manon Massé, deputy of Quebec solidaire in Sainte-Marie-Saint-Jacques, and Steven Guilbeault, federal deputy in Laurier-Sainte-Marie, of having “let the situation rot”. Nothing less.
The triple crisis we are witnessing (housing-mental health-opioids) is all the more astonishing because it comes as the parties of these three politicians place social issues at the heart of their raison d’être.
A few days ago, Manon Massé sent a letter to the Minister responsible for the Metropolis, Pierre Fitzgibbon. We’ll see if it resonates. And how will the minister and his colleagues react.
But hey, this witch hunt seems useless to me in the face of this unprecedented crisis. What is needed is to create genuine consultation with the various players. This union will be the key to this battle, because it is amazing to see how the specialists in place see things each through their own prism.
More psychiatric resources, more resources and personnel in supervised injection centers, more social workers in the field, more police presence, more drug analysis centers, more housing for the homeless, more chemical toilets… All of these answers are good. Still need to link them.
The Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant, announced last Friday an additional $1,450,000 to prevent overdoses in Greater Montreal.
It’s good news, but it’s a band-aid on a gaping wound. Especially since some beneficiary organizations claim that these sums only allow pre-pandemic funding to be caught up.
It is urgent that the Legault government set up a summit that will bring together all the players, particularly those in the field, to agree on a solid action plan.
This crisis is a real octopus. As long as these resources do not work together and agree on the roles they must play and the links that must be forged between them, we will remain powerless.
Who will be the leader who will dare to create this synergy?
You will tell me that there is mostly talk that comes out of these peaks, it’s true. But this would at least have the advantage of ringing an alarm at the height of this serious social problem.
Last but not least is legal. In this regard, two camps oppose each other: those who believe that the decriminalization of drugs would curb the proliferation of toxic substances.
And then there is the repression against the dealers of these synthetic drugs. Anne-Marie Boisvert, professor of criminal law at the University of Montreal, brought to my attention a Supreme Court decision from November 2021 which indicates that judges are likely to be more severe with regard to these manufacturers.
The highest court has recognized that the 10 and 14 year sentences imposed by the Alberta Court of Appeal on two fentanyl traffickers (at the request of the Crown, which considered the 7 and 11 year sentences imposed at trial to be insufficient) were entirely justified.
“Alberta has one of the highest rates of opioid-related deaths and overdoses compared to other provinces and territories. The Court of Appeal could therefore take this public health crisis into account, ”the judgment reads.
As we become aware of the growing magnitude of this drama, dealers continue to identify new substances that they incorporate into their dirt. Have you heard of the zombie drug? It contains a powerful tranquilizer for animals (xylazine) which causes the skin to “rot”. The images I’ve seen send shivers down your spine.
This drug, present in the United States and Western Canada, was identified in samples in 2020 in Canada. She entered Montreal a few months ago, according to some analyses. What is worrying is that naloxone, the drug used to counter opioid overdoses, cannot do anything against xylazine.
Havoc is to be expected.
And there, we can’t say that we didn’t see things coming.