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Final Statement Letter Size - Sigs - 3
Final Statement Letter Size - Sigs - 3
In early September 2018, Health Canada convened a national opioid symposium where the voices of people who use
drugs, their families and civil society organizations called for immediate action to intervene in the ongoing overdose crisis.
At this symposium, the Public Health Agency of Canada brought forward new data indicating that the rate of overdose
deaths this year may surpass that of 2017 when 4000 people lost their lives. One month later, as we gather for Stimulus
2018: Drugs, Policy and Practice in Canada, we are calling on our leaders for an emergency public health intervention.
A responsible intervention could give people who are currently procuring drugs from the illegal market immediate low-
threshold access to a range of pharmaceutical opioids, including injectable and oral hydromorphone and
diacetylmorphine (heroin), expanded methadone and suboxone. This response must also include expanded supervised
consumption services, overdose prevention sites, a full spectrum of substitution treatment options where needed and
requested, and the immediate decriminalization of drugs for personal use. This emergency policy change would have the
immediate effect of saving lives.
Toxicology results across Canada consistantly reveal that opioids purchased on the illegal market are contaminated with
fentanyl and its analogues. The presence of these adulterants has created a toxic drug supply that kills thousands of
Canadian citizens and puts the lives of countless others at extreme risk of overdose each day. Indeed, fentanyl and its
analogues were found in 72% of overdose deaths in Canada in 2017, up from 55% in 2016. In both Ontario and British
Columbia, the provinces hardest hit by this crisis, four people die every day and in Alberta, two people a day are now
dying of overdose.
We need emergency action on the part of our leaders. Specifically, we are calling for the following immediate actions:
1) Provide a safer supply of drugs and the full spectrum of substitution treatment options. We call for immediate
action by all governments to use existing public health tools to replace the poisoned and deadly drug supply with
safer alternatives and provide a full spectrum of substitution treatment options. Hesitation and delay by
governments in providing a safer supply of opioids directly contributes to continued high rates of death from
overdose among people who use drugs.
2) Decriminalize possession of drugs for personal use. We call for governments to immediately decriminalize drugs
for personal use and provide access to health services and supportive housing for those who need them.
Criminalization of drug possession contributes to stigmatization of people who use drugs, thereby creating
barriers to accessing health care and undermining a public health approach to overdose.
3) Expedite and expand implementation of evidence-based harm reduction interventions. We call for all
governments, including municipalities, to expedite and scale-up implementation of supervised consumption
services, overdose prevention sites, naloxone distribution and other proven successful harm reduction
interventions. To date, no deaths have been recorded in hundreds of supervised consumption settings since they
were first implemented in Europe in 1986.
Signatories on reverse