TORONTO, February 20, 2019 — In the midst of a growing overdose crisis, more than 75 health and human rights organizations have signed a letter to the federal government calling for a much-needed “class exemption” to protect clients and staff of supervised consumption services (SCS) from prosecution for drug offences when accessing or providing those services. These organizations are also calling for the broader decriminalization of activities related to personal drug use. These recommendations, as well as a review of the current state of SCS and drug policy in Canada, are detailed in a report released today by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Overdue for a Change: Scaling up Supervised Consumption Services in Canada.
