There is an entirely preventable obscenity that is happening across Canada and the USA. I am referring to the fact that 2021 saw a dramatic rise in drug overdoses due to an unsafe drug supply. For example, in 2020 and 2021, over 2500 individuals in Alberta, Canada, died as a result of using unsafe drugs. Another disturbing fact is that, although Indigenous peoples make up 6% of the province’s population, they accounted for 22% of the overdoses that occurred in 2020. This trend continued in 2022 and will continue unless drugs are legalized to provide users with a safer regulated product.
The War on Drugs promulgated in the USA and in Canada is what makes the drugs unsafe. Given that smuggling drugs is illegal, it is easier to smuggle a small volume versus a large volume. Making the drugs more powerful by lacing them with fentanyl and carfentanyl is a way to drastically reduce the volume you need to smuggle. The fact that this makes the drugs much more dangerous doesn’t figure into the overall greed-based enterprise. In addition, those needing drugs must resort to serious crimes because they can’t access the drugs that they need in any other way.
Preventing overdoses requires regulation. Alcohol is legal in Canada and its production is strictly regulated. For this reason, I can go into a liquor store with a high degree of trust that when a bottle says it contains 40% alcohol, that’s what it contains. I can buy it without needing to be afraid that a single drink might kill me because it contains fentanyl; I have this trust because production is regulated by the government.
One proposal being made by some governments is to decriminalize drugs. While this may improve the situation somewhat, it will not solve the problem of a lethal supply of drugs. Under decriminalization, while users will no longer be criminalized and only fined, the drugs will still be illegal and more importantly, still unregulated. Only legalization and regulation will reduce these preventable deaths resulting from tainted drugs.
Unfortunately, the many governments don’t seem to be receptive to this harm-reduction approach. Instead, they are focusing on recovery from addiction, an approach that does nothing to solve the safe drug issue and the consequent high rate of lethal overdoses.
This is mostly because the general attitude is that no politician should be seen to be “soft on drugs”. However, consider how the rate of drug-related crimes would plummet if the government provided safe drugs to drug users. Citizens concerned about drug-related crimes should welcome this reduction. Although there may be a fear that legalization would increase the number of people using drugs, the research findings simply do not support this claim.
For people with long-term drug habits, not having a dose leaves them in a very aversive state, complete with very unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. Having worry-free access to their next dose would then allow them to focus on other aspects of their life. This could make it possible for them to become contributing members of society, able to pursue their own goals and follow their dreams.
There is good evidence from other countries such as Great Britain to support the claim that prescribing legal drugs produces the advantages described above. What’s needed is an attitude in governments that shows concern for those who use drugs. Governments need to be willing to accept that legalization is the only way to stop the mounting drug overdose deaths. So far, there is little evidence of any of these. In fact, some governments have gone so far as to close legal supervised safe injection sites (Alberta, Canada 2020) or to outlaw them (USA), in spite of incontrovertible evidence that they prevent overdoses.