Millions for addiction and mental health in B C s budget for unprecedented need princegeorgecitizen.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from princegeorgecitizen.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
NDP lawmaker tables bill to decriminalize drug use as overdose deaths soar April 16, 2021 April 16, 2021
By Christopher Reynolds
OTTAWA An NDP lawmaker is tabling legislation to decriminalize drug use in Canada, seeking to treat it as a health issue amid a lethal opioid crisis.
New Democrat health critic Don Davies introduced a private member’s bill Thursday that would scrap Criminal Code provisions on drug possession, expunge criminal records for the same offence and mandate low-barrier access to a safe supply of medically regulated substances.
The legislation is unlikely to reach the debate stage, but Davies says current federal policy is causing “unneeded deaths,” despite moving in the right direction recently.
Headline Politics: NDP MP Tables Bill to Decriminalize Drug Use – April 15, 2021 cpac.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cpac.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The B.C. Coroners Service reports 7,024 illicit drug overdose deaths since the public health emergency was declared in April 2016. Death to illicit drug toxicity is now the fourth highest cause of death in B.C., Lapointe said at a news conference. The average age of those dying is 43. Fentanyl or fentanyl analogues are now detected in 80 per cent of all deaths.
Dr. Shannon McDonald, acting chief medical officer at the First Nations Health Authority, said toxic drugs continue to take a deadly toll on Indigenous people, with overdose deaths much higher than provincial averages.
The Coroners Service, which warned of the social and economic toll of the overdose crisis in reports dating back to the early 1990s, has repeatedly called for more evidence-based addiction treatments, expanded drug use safety options and more support for physicians to link patients to recovery programs, said Lapointe.
Dirk Meissner and Nick Wells
Heartfelt messages are left on a table as people come out to mark International Overdose Awareness Day during a mass group naloxone training seminar at Centennial Square in Victoria, B.C., on Saturday August 31, 2019. When British Columbia s provincial health officer declared an emergency into the overdose crisis five years ago, he said it was because those who died deserved more of a response. Since then, Dr. Perry Kendall says roughly 7,000 died unnecessarily.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito April 14, 2021 - 3:30 PM Calls for bold, courageous and compassionate actions were made Wednesday by top health officials and advocates as British Columbia marked the fifth anniversary of its deadly overdose crisis.