The following letter was first published by BarrieToday. CollingwoodToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication).
This week, the leader of the federal Conservatives, Pierre Poilievre, was ejected from the House of Commons for unparliamentary language — referring to the prime minister as a “wacko.” While much can be said about the concerning parody that Question Period has become, let’s draw the discussion back to what parliamentarians were supposed to be focused on: drugs. More specifically, the toxic drug and overdose crises, the preventable deaths of those using substances, and decriminalization.
Misinformed debate isn’t saving lives. While the Conservatives are busy taking shots at the prime minister, using stigmatizing language against people who use drugs, and convincing people that decriminalization is to blame, people are dying. There have been at least 40 suspected drug-related deaths in Simcoe-Muskoka since January 2024, or about one every three days. Thousands more are dying every year country-wide.
Drug decriminalization is not the harbinger of doom it’s being made out to be — inaction, and continuing the failed decades-long war on drugs, is. If we want to take serious action on these drug-related crises which are affecting so many communities, we need to have a serious conversation. We need to treat this as a health issue, rather than a criminal one.
The three-year pilot project in British Columbia should do what it is meant to do, and inform Canada’s approach. Cutting off the pilot early will not allow us to properly judge its effects — though we know from over a dozen other countries that decriminalization works. It also may prematurely prevent requests for a similar pilot in Toronto and Montréal. It may even further entrench governments like Ontario into delaying funding more supervised consumption sites. Barrie has already waited three years too long.
Most importantly, this request from B.C. and the misinformed debate around it will cause more harm than good to those actively in use.
We need to see the humanity in our fellow community members and support their calls for action. Calls for a harm-reduction, health-based approach have been echoed by advocates, public health and addictions experts, and reputable organizations from the Canadian Mental Health Association to the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction. Even Benjamin Perrin, former legal adviser to former prime minister Stephen Harper, supports these calls.
People who use substances are our neighbours, friends, and loved ones. It’s time we treated them that way with compassion, informed discussion, and action. Anything less will only bring further injustice.
Brandon Rhéal Amyot
Barrie
