Ya’ara Saks, Canada’s minister of mental health and addictions, addressed the issue of Canada’s opioid epidemic on February 1. She spoke about “harm reduction” as the second step at a Commons Standing Committee on Health meeting.
The federal cabinet gave approval one year ago to B.C.’s proposal for a three-year pilot project decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs. However, after five months of decriminalization, addiction-related fatalities had risen 7 percent in B.C., according to the BC Coroners Service. By the end of the year, B.C. had recorded 2,511 deaths from illicit, toxic drugs, the highest yearly death rate ever recorded by the BC Coroners Service.
B.C.’s Chief Coroner, Lisa Lapointe, expressed that the crisis, driven primarily by unregulated fentanyl, has had a devastating impact on the province. During the meeting on February 1, committee vice chair Dr. Stephen Ellis raised questions about B.C.’s three-year pilot project that started last year with the decriminalization of drug possession.
The minister replied, “My answer is that we will never stop providing medical health care services and interventions to those who use drugs and substances.” Conservative MP Laila Goodridge took up questioning, saying to Minister Saks, “On Sept. 26, in Question Period, you said decriminalization was the first step.” Ms. Goodridge then asked, “What’s the second step?” “Harm reduction,” answered Ms. Saks. “There is prevention, there is harm reduction, treatment, then recovery.” Decriminalization, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery are steps Ms. Saks’s predecessor, MP Carolyn Bennett, has promoted in support of B.C.’s decriminalization project.
Last summer, the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU) published a report titled Fentanyl Tablet Prescribed Safer Supply Protocols. The BCCSU is supported by the B.C. government and the non-profit PHS Community Services Society. Despite the absence of evidence backing the BCCSU proposal, it justifies its recommendations on the basis of clinical experience and policies at various organizations operating supervised consumption sites and safer supply programs.