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The problem of the supply of toxic drugs in Canada cannot be solved by decriminalizing the possession of small quantities of drugs alone – a move that advocates say is a step in the right direction, but far from tackling the deteriorating overdose crisis.
In response to the crisis, the federal government announced a plan this week to allow seniors in British Columbia possess small amounts of some illicit drugs – up to 2.5 grams of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA in British Columbia.
But in the last decade, the supply of illicit drugs has gone from unimaginably bad to unimaginably worse, as fentanyl has completely overtaken heroin and even more dangerous drugs have entered the supply.
Since 2016 26,690 Canadians have died from suspected opioid overdosesand in British Columbia alone there were 2,224 presumed overdose deaths in 2021 and more than 9,400 in 2016. leading cause of unnatural death in the countryside.
“No one knows, no one can know what they’re selling or what they’re putting in their bodies,” Karen Ward, a drug user and lawyer at Vancouver’s East Side Center, told CBC News in a recent interview.
“I don’t even want to think about how much worse it can get.”
7000% increase in fentanyl over the last decade
The dramatic rise in fentanyl in Canada is sharp. In 2012, only 217 of the street drug samples seized by Canadian law enforcement tested positive for fentanyl. In 2021, this number increased to over 16,000 samples – an increase of over 7,000 percent.
Of the more than 24,000 opioid drugs seized by law enforcement in Canada last year, 72 percent contained fentanyl or fentanyl analogues, and 45 percent contained confiscated heroin samples.
But at the same time, the actual amount of heroin in Canada has fallen by more than 60 percent in the five years since fentanyl took power, leading to an unpredictable and dangerous supply.
“A lot of people say the supply of heroin is contaminated with fentanyl, but we haven’t had a stockpile of heroin in a long time – the supply is fentanyl,” said Nick Boyce, director of the Ontario Harm Reduction Network, in a recent interview.
Nick Boyce, director of the Ontario Harm Reduction Network, says the supply of heroin is completely ahead of fentanyl in Canada. (Evan Mitsui / CBC)
“You don’t know what dose you’re going to get, and there are many different fentanyl analogues, some of which are more potent than others.”
In particular, carfentanil is one of the most dangerous opioids in the supply of drugs: 100 times more toxic than fentanyl, 10,000 times more toxic than morphine and undetectable by sight, smell or taste. And after falling in 2019, it is now on the rise again in Canada.
The statistics were compiled by Health Canada’s Drug Analysis Service (DAS)which tests approximately 125,000 drug samples seized by the Canadian Border Services Agency, the Canadian Correctional Service and police forces nationwide each year.
And while providing only a snapshot of the crisis, it also paints a tragic picture that simultaneously shows the disappearance of heroin, as fentanyl and other dangerous opioids pollute supplies as the number of overdose deaths skyrockets.
“It’s a terrible situation – it’s like the well was poisoned,” Ward said. “This whole community is just falling apart because so many people have died.”
WATCH Fighting an epidemic of opioid overdose during a pandemic:
Fighting an epidemic of opioid overdose during a pandemic
The opioid crisis was a problem in British Columbia before the COVID-19 pandemic, but combined with a dangerous supply of drugs and less safe places to inject, the crisis has become an epidemic of overdose.
In the first year of the pandemic alone, there was a 95% increase in alleged opioid-related deaths, with 7,224 lives lost in Canada compared to 3,711 in 2019.
“This is the worst public health crisis we’ve ever seen with toxic drugs in our country’s history,” said Donald McPherson, executive director of the Canadian Coalition for Drug Policy, a policy advocacy group of about 50 organizations.
“We’ve never seen anything like it before.”
Decriminalization will not have a “big impact”
But the federal government’s decriminalization plan did not take effect for another seven months and did not reach the 4.5-gram threshold called for by the province’s defenders and harm reduction – an amount that many critics already thought was too low.
“If it’s meant to make enough of a difference to save lives, why doesn’t it take effect for another seven months?” Ward said in response to the announcement, adding that he was doing little to address the toxic supply of drugs to Canada.
WATCH Small-scale possession of illicit drugs decriminalized in BC:
BC receives exemption to decriminalize small-scale illicit drug possession
The federal government has granted an exception that would decriminalize the possession of some illicit drugs on a small scale in British Columbia. The exemption will take effect in 2023.
McPherson said that while the message “signals the direction we need to go” as a country, it had to be introduced nationally to have a real impact in Canada, given that the overdose crisis is not just BC issue.
“This is discriminatory, if you live in another province, you will not actually have the advantages of this model. It’s only for BC residents, so it’s disappointing, “he said.
“And that really won’t have a huge impact on the supply of toxic drugs – that’s problem number one.”
The federal government is signaling that this is the case open to discussing extending the scope of decriminalization beyond just BC to other provinces and cities across the country, but SaskatchewanManitoba and Nova Scotia have already said they will not be next in line.
Kayla DeMong, executive director of Prairie Harm Reduction in Saskatoon, said that while decriminalization is overcoming a century of “highly discriminatory” drug policy, it has failed to tackle the overdose crisis in a meaningful way.
“Do I think this will have a huge impact on the supply of toxic drugs?” No, “she told CBC News. “What I hope is that it will provide better support and resources and less criminal enforcement for people who use substances.”
Drug user injects heroin at Moss Park overdose prevention site in downtown Toronto in December 2018 (Evan Mitsui / CBC)
The focus should be on toxic supplies: advocates
McPherson said that while some drug users in British Columbia who have been stopped by police with small quantities of drugs will benefit from the decriminalization process, police are no longer arresting many people for possession in Vancouver and this is unlikely to change much there. .
“It also means that we will spend the next seven months modeling a change in policy that is not really about offering toxic drugs,” he said. “So the focus of the answer is in the wrong place.”
Proponents have called for a safe and regulated supply of drugs for decades to enable drug users to access regulated substances, such as medical heroin, from a legal source, rather than potentially toxic versions of the illicit market.
“There’s still so much to do in terms of providing people with alternatives to the toxic drug market that don’t happen – that’s where the real crisis is,” McPherson said.
“This kind of action has to start happening in combination with decriminalization, it would make sense. But decriminalization itself? When more than 90 percent of people who die die from drug toxicity? That has to be done. ”
Karen Ward says the federal government’s decriminalization announcement does little to tackle toxic drug supplies in Canada. (Raffer Baker / CBC)
Ward said that until the problem of supplying toxic drugs is addressed directly in Canada, people who use drugs will continue to die at an incredible rate.
“The problem is, they’re not illegal because they’re dangerous, they’re dangerous because they’re illegal,” Ward said.
“People are dying. I’m surprised I’m still alive. People are falling apart. We have been through so much. They have suffered so much and have been poisoned to death by a policy that we have decided not to change. ”
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