The current drug crisis - a discussion.

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Drug deaths rose by a third in 2021, Statistics Canada said yesterday. The increase in fatalities due to “accidental poisonings” followed parliamentary proposals to decriminalize heroin nationwide.

“An accidental poisoning resulting in death occurs when a person is exposed to a noxious substance such as drugs, alcohol, carbon monoxide or pesticides,” said a StatsCan report Deaths 2021. “Unintentional deaths caused by accidental poisonings accounted for 7,006 deaths in 2021, an increase of 31.9 percent compared with 2020.”

“In particular drug overdoses which accounted for the vast majority (95.9 percent) of deaths attributed to accidental poisonings rose by 32.9 percent,” wrote analysts. Most drug victims were men.

The increase coincided with parliamentary debate over criminal sanctions on narcotics. The Commons health committee in a 2019 report Impacts Of Methamphetamine Abuse In Canada recommended that cabinet “work with provinces, territories, municipalities, Indigenous communities and law enforcement agencies to decriminalize the simple possession of small quantities of illicit substances.”

A subsequent 2021 federal panel also recommended decriminalization. “By criminalizing simple possession, Canada’s Controlled Drugs And Substances Act increases the stigma by labeling people who use drugs as criminals,” said Report No. 1 Recommendations On Alternatives To Criminal Penalties For Simple Possession Of Controlled Substances by cabinet’s Expert Task Force on Substance Use.

However a Commons majority on June 1, 2022 defeated at Second Reading a New Democrat bill to decriminalize simple possess of heroin, cocaine, fentanyl and other narcotics. Bill C-216 An Act To Amend The Controlled Drugs And Substances Act was lost on a vote of 247 to 71.

Fourteen members of the government caucus supported the bill including Marc Garneau, former transport minister, MP Joël Lightbound (Louis-Hébert, Que.), chair of the Commons industry committee, Ron McKinnon (Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam, B.C.), former chair of the health committee, and Heath MacDonald (Malpeque, P.E.I.), a former Prince Edward Island finance minister.

Cabinet last January 31 granted British Columbia’s request to decriminalize simple possession of cocaine and other narcotics for a two-year trial period. Figures from the British Columbia Coroners Service indicate in the period of decriminalization from February 1 to June 30 there were 1,001 addiction deaths in the province compared to 936 in the same period last year, a seven percent increase. “There is no indication that prescribed safer supply is contributing to unregulated drug deaths,” the Coroners Service said in a statement.

The Privy Council last year commissioned in-house polling on decriminalization across Canada. “What do you think the impact of decriminalizing small amounts of illicit drugs would be?” asked a February 28, 2022 study Continuous Qualitative Data Collection Of Canadians’ Views. Most opposed it, said the report.