LILLEY: Trudeau claims his drug policy is saving lives, so why have OD deaths risen so dramatically?
Lilley #Lilley
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Either we start funding and providing addiction treatment, or we stop this folly.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes part in a town hall meeting with Dalhousie University students in Halifax on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. Photo by Riley Smith /THE CANADIAN PRESS Article content
It’s not frustrating to hear Justin Trudeau claim that he’s following “the science” when he’s clearly not, it’s infuriating.
On Thursday, Trudeau was speaking to students at Dalhousie University in Halifax when he spoke about his government’s plans on drugs “saving lives significantly.”
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The hard, cold numbers would say otherwise.
Trudeau was asked a heartbreaking question by a student about her cousin, who she described as a veteran dealing with PTSD and who recently died due to his demons. After describing how his government helped veterans by reopening offices – but not improving services – Trudeau spoke of what his government has done and is looking to do on the drug file.
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“What the science tells us is that the best ways to support people struggling with addictions, first of all, safe consumption sites. There was one when we came into office in 2015, now there are dozens and dozens and dozens across the country, and they are saving lives significantly,” Trudeau said.
Here’s the thing, Trudeau has increased the number of places for people to consume hard drugs but hasn’t funded or mandated addiction services to help people kick their habit. The result isn’t that lives are being saved by his policies but instead people are dying.
Trudeau said that the expansion of safe consumption sites since his government took office has saved lives, however, in 2015, British Columbia recorded 529 “drug toxicity deaths” but in 2022 there were 2,272 or an increase of more than 300% in one province over seven years.
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In Ontario, the number of opioid-related deaths went from 728 in 2015 to 2,907 in 2021. The number of emergency room visits from opioids alone went from 3,628 in 2015 to 17,023 in 2021.
The more permissive attitude is not saving lives by any standard.
At the end of January, British Columbia was granted permission to decriminalize what the federal government deemed personal use amounts of certain hard drugs. Anyone found with 2.5 grams or less of heroin, morphine, and fentanyl, crack, cocaine, meth or ecstasy won’t face charges.
Advocates for making Canada’s drug laws more lenient regularly point to places like Portugal which legalized virtually all drugs more than 20 years ago. What they don’t tell you is that you can still be busted for possession but sent for treatment rather than being sent to jail.
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In Canada, we seem to want to adopt the policy that says make drugs legal, make them easier to get but we don’t want to offer treatment for addictions. This has been my problem with the legalization and safe consumption argument for years. The governments pushing easier access to drugs for addicts don’t make easier access for addiction treatment part of the package.
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Yet, Justin Trudeau said during his Dalhousie town hall that Conservatives were not compassionate because they opposed his policies. How is making it easier for people with addictions to feed their addictions without offering them help compassionate?
It’s not and it’s not a road we should go down.
Either we start funding and providing addiction treatment, or we stop this folly.
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The overall rise in drug use and overdose deaths, especially due to illicit opioids like fentanyl, is not simply due to government policy but neither is government policy blameless.
Yet, Justin Trudeau telling university students that he’s saving lives due to his policy is not only false, it’s dangerous. A simple glance at the numbers in B.C., in Alberta or in Ontario shows the deadly consequences of Trudeau’s policies.
He said Thursday that he doesn’t want to legalize hard drugs completely but did talk about giving people a safe supply – meaning taxpayers paying to give people government-sanctioned heroin or fentanyl. That’s the wrong direction — focus on treatment, focus on helping people, not on aiding and abetting their addictions.
If you want to claim to be compassionate, actually be compassionate.
blilley@postmedia.com
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