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Canada is now fully immersed in an opioid overdose crisis \u2014 fueled by a contaminated drug supply \u2014 that is killing at an alarming rate. In the past four years, more than 12,800 people have died. In 2018 alone, this means that one person died every two hours from opioid-related causes \u2014 and it\u2019s not getting any better.<\/p>\n
One positive intervention Canada has made, which is currently saving lives, is the introduction of \u201csupervised consumption sites\u201d and \u201coverdose prevention sites.\u201d These critical harm reduction services:<\/p>\n
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Problematic drug use is a public health issue. It\u2019s ineffective to deal with this as a criminal issue; the \u201cwar on drugs\u201d has not only failed but done incredible damage to people and communities.<\/p>\n
Instead of criminalizing and jailing people, we need a response based on public health, human rights and scientific evidence. A public health response means recognizing that people who use drugs are simply people \u2014 our friends, family and fellow community members. It would focus on interventions that protect and promote health and save lives. It would prioritize supervised consumption services.
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Amidst this opioid overdose crisis, we need to define Canada\u2019s response and dictate a path forward. We must determine whether we will listen to the evidence supporting harm reduction and give our family members and friends who use drugs the dignity and support they deserve. We must also determine whether lawmakers will explore options for decriminalizing personal drug use \u2014 with all the positive social and health outcomes seen in other countries.<\/p>\n
Our political leaders need to commit to a public health response to the overdose crisis, including supporting harm reduction services. But for them to commit to this, they need to see overwhelming support from the people they represent. We need you to help us show that there is support in your community for these vital health services, and for scaling up the number of supervised consumption and overdose prevention sites across the country.<\/p>\n
Your member of Parliament helps decide the future of these sites. By engaging with your representative, you can let them know the importance of harm reduction services to you and your community, how they help people who use drugs, and why all parties must commit to supporting them.<\/p>\n
Your voice matters to your MP. They work for you. You can help get this important issue on their agenda. You can help save lives.<\/p>\n
The Legal Network is calling on political parties to commit to saving lives and tackling the overdose crisis head on by:<\/strong><\/p>\n Information on the Opioid Crisis What is the opioid overdose crisis and what are supervised consumption services? Canada is now fully immersed in an opioid overdose crisis \u2014 fueled by a contaminated drug supply \u2014 that is killing at an alarming rate. In the past four years, more than 12,800 people have died. In 2018 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22750,"parent":0,"menu_order":80,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18084","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18084"}],"version-history":[{"count":76,"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22780,"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18084\/revisions\/22780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hivlegalnetwork.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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