Health Canada said cabinet’s safe supply policy has not caused meaningful changes, despite costing more than $820 million, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. “People have continued to engage in opioid use behaviour that increases risk of harm,” said Health Canada in a report. “Minimal changes since 2017 to rates of high risk substance use suggest further prevention efforts are required.”With the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy (CDSS), Health Canada said it “has made significant progress in framing substance use as a social and public health issue in Canada.” However, the rates of substance use and related harms continue to rise. “Deaths from opioid toxicity reached record levels in 2020 and 2021,” it said. “Since then, opioid-related deaths have remained higher than pre-pandemic levels.”A total of $820.1 million was spent on the CDSS from 2017 to 2022. While the CDSS had problems, it said supervised consumption sites have reversed more than 39,000 drug overdoses and made 117,000 referrals to health and social services such as mental health supports, medical care and housing. Despite efforts to reduce and minimize opioid-related harms and deaths, Health Canada said the number of them continues to be alarming. “The COVID-19 pandemic has also exacerbated the overdose crisis,” it said. The report was dated from August — seven months after cabinet decriminalized personal possession of up to 2.5 grams of drugs in British Columbia. It said determining the impact of drug decriminalization would take several years to assess. The House of Commons voted down a Conservative motion to end safe supply 209 to 113 in May. READ MORE: With surging overdose deaths, Parliament upholds 'safe supply' drug policy“This is not about encouraging drug use or turning a blind eye to the consequences,” said former mental health and addictions minister Carolyn Bennett. “It is about acknowledging the reality that people will continue to use drugs and that by providing a safer alternative, we can minimize the harm and pave the way toward recovery.”Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre sponsored the motion to ask cabinet to “immediately reverse its deadly policies and redirect all funds from taxpayer-funded hard drug programs to addiction treatment and recovery programs.”“We are told that giving out and decriminalizing hard drugs would reduce drug overdoses,” said Poilievre. “These so-called experts are typically pie in the sky theorists with no experience getting people off drugs or are members of the misery industry — those paid activists and public health bureaucrats whose jobs depend on the crisis continuing.”
Health Canada said cabinet’s safe supply policy has not caused meaningful changes, despite costing more than $820 million, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. “People have continued to engage in opioid use behaviour that increases risk of harm,” said Health Canada in a report. “Minimal changes since 2017 to rates of high risk substance use suggest further prevention efforts are required.”With the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy (CDSS), Health Canada said it “has made significant progress in framing substance use as a social and public health issue in Canada.” However, the rates of substance use and related harms continue to rise. “Deaths from opioid toxicity reached record levels in 2020 and 2021,” it said. “Since then, opioid-related deaths have remained higher than pre-pandemic levels.”A total of $820.1 million was spent on the CDSS from 2017 to 2022. While the CDSS had problems, it said supervised consumption sites have reversed more than 39,000 drug overdoses and made 117,000 referrals to health and social services such as mental health supports, medical care and housing. Despite efforts to reduce and minimize opioid-related harms and deaths, Health Canada said the number of them continues to be alarming. “The COVID-19 pandemic has also exacerbated the overdose crisis,” it said. The report was dated from August — seven months after cabinet decriminalized personal possession of up to 2.5 grams of drugs in British Columbia. It said determining the impact of drug decriminalization would take several years to assess. The House of Commons voted down a Conservative motion to end safe supply 209 to 113 in May. READ MORE: With surging overdose deaths, Parliament upholds 'safe supply' drug policy“This is not about encouraging drug use or turning a blind eye to the consequences,” said former mental health and addictions minister Carolyn Bennett. “It is about acknowledging the reality that people will continue to use drugs and that by providing a safer alternative, we can minimize the harm and pave the way toward recovery.”Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre sponsored the motion to ask cabinet to “immediately reverse its deadly policies and redirect all funds from taxpayer-funded hard drug programs to addiction treatment and recovery programs.”“We are told that giving out and decriminalizing hard drugs would reduce drug overdoses,” said Poilievre. “These so-called experts are typically pie in the sky theorists with no experience getting people off drugs or are members of the misery industry — those paid activists and public health bureaucrats whose jobs depend on the crisis continuing.”
