Decriminalizing street drugs like heroin is not the way to prevent deaths, and marijuana.legalization did not stop users from buying drugs on the black market, Addictions Minister Dr. Carolyn Bennett said March 21..“As in the journey with cannabis, decriminalization still means people go to the street to get their drugs and they are still dying,” Bennett testified at the House of Commons health committee. “I am focused on getting safer supplies to the people using drugs.”.“You need to know my father was a police officer before the Second World War and to the day he died at 93, he thought prohibition didn’t work,” said Bennett. “I come from a certain point of view on this, but this is a journey. We are going to have to have evidence-based approaches.”.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, since Parliament legalized recreational marijuana in 2018 federal data has shown unlicensed pot dealers dominated sales until 2020. An Access To Information memo at the Department of Justice in 2017 estimated it would take “roughly four years for the legal industry to grow to the point where it is capable of displacing a significant portion of the illegal market.”.Bennett said the federal government had not decided whether to adopt a federal panel’s report to decriminalize heroin. “We are looking at all the international models to be able to figure out what is the best way forward as we want to end this national public health crisis,” Bennett.said..On August 13, 2021, a health department Expert Task Force On Substance Use report recommended Parliament decriminalize street drugs and instead make possession of heroin and other narcotics a ticketing offence..“Canada’s current policies are based on an outdated and deeply problematic position which the Task Force members reject that devalues and dehumanizes people who use drugs by labelling them as immoral, ‘addicts’ or weak,” said the report Recommendations To Alternatives To Criminal Penalties For Simple Possession Of Controlled Substances..When Bennett was asked by New Democrat MP Taylor Bachrach (Skeena-Bulkley Valley, B.C.). whether she believed criminalization contributed to the stigmatization and marginalization of people who use drugs, she replied to the affirmative..“The other piece we’re hearing a lot about is at the moment our safer supply programs are prescribed by physicians and there is a real movement to be able to look at other ways of getting safer supply, maybe using compassion clubs, pharmacists and other ways of doing this,” Bennett.said. “That is what we’re hearing as the priority of people using drugs.”.The British Columbia Coroners’ Service estimated a majority of drug deaths involve the use of fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine. The province of B.C. and City of Vancouver have petitioned the federal health department to decriminalize the simple possession of street drugs like heroin..When Bennett was asked by Bachrach what date Health Canada would have a response, she said, “the timeline is when we’re satisfied this is going to be successful.”.Matthew Horwood is an Ottawa Parliamentary reporter for the Western Standard
