While there have been no deaths at the overdose prevention site in Duncan and it may seem like progress is being made in the fight against opioid deaths, the numbers tell a different story.
In the last three years, more than ten thousand Canadians have died as a result of opioid use in this country and Cowichan-Malahat-Langford MP Alistair MacGregor said last year was particularly bad and in many other cases, the military would be brought in.
“Last year alone, it was nearly four thousand. If you think of another infectious disease, if it started knocking people off at that kind of a rate we would have the army out on the streets, trying to control it,” said MacGregor. “It’s one of those killers out there that people seem to be aware of in the periphery, but I don’t think we are honestly treating it with the kind of resources that could be brought to bear.”
MacGregor said the federal government needs to make an emergency declaration in the face of the opioid crisis and he highlighted what it would look like if the Trudeau government engaged a specific section of the Emergencies Act (Section 8: subsection 1).
“Authority to make orders or regulations that are necessary for dealing with it could include the authorization of persons to render essential services, regulation of the distribution and availability of essential goods, services, resources, authorization in making of emergency payments and the establishment of emergency shelters and hospitals,” said MacGregor.
Portugal has gone from having some of the highest overdose death rates in Europe to some of the lowest.
MacGregor calls the federal “War on Drugs” strategy an abject failure and said Canada needs to follow Portugal’s model for dealing with overdose deaths.
“They started treating that drug (Heroine) like a social issue, a public health issue, started redirecting funds that were going into policing, into actually giving people the care they needed, removing that stigma of the criminality and actually encouraging people to come out of the shadows to seek help,” said MacGregor.
MacGregor said the Trudeau Liberals need to realize that this crisis needs an emergency declaration, and there is a need to treat substance abuse and addiction for what they are, health issues.
