I've been an outreach worker in Edmonton for over 12 years.
Regarding meth use in the context of prohibition, meth use is common among members of the community I work with and very common in Edmonton. Although I acknowledge that meth use is the concern of this committee, I think we should understand that meth is not chemically different from drugs that are prescribed to treat ADHD in Canada every day. Drugs like Dexedrine and Adderall are prescribed without the side effects or stigma that meth has. This is because they come in a regulated pharmaceutical dose.
Some people use meth for the same reasons. It helps them focus. Meth comes in unregulated doses, which means that the person using it has no way of knowing what is in their drug. Sometimes the doses bought on the streets are much larger than what the person would get from a prescription, and a larger dose can come with more side effects.
Meth use affects every person differently. For some, it's helpful, and they use it without any problems. Research by Dr. Carl Hart in the United States suggests that only 4% of people who try meth end up addicted to it.
There is a fear that meth can cause psychosis in some people. Meth psychosis is often a result of homelessness and poverty. During the winter in Edmonton, when the temperatures are 30 below, people who are experiencing homelessness use meth just to survive. This means using it to stay awake all night to avoid freezing to death. When people are trying to survive a long, cold winter and have no place to go, they have to stay up, often for days and nights on end, to prevent freezing to death. When people have underlying mental health issues, are homeless and have not slept for days on end, their chances of developing psychosis increase a great deal. I believe that meth use is not the largest issue but that homelessness and poverty are. It's not the drug; it's the policy.
People risk jail or prison to obtain the drug, and when they use it, because of fentanyl contamination in the drug supply, they risk overdose death. Fentanyl is not just in our opiate drug supply; it is now being found in stimulants. The fact of the matter is that Canada's drug supply is contaminated. Unless we replace the contaminated supply with a safe supply, we will continue to lose thousands of people every year. We need a safe supply for stimulant replacement programs to protect people from criminalization and the worst side effects of meth use. While people who use opiates can get access to oral substitution therapy, people who use meth have very few alternatives.
Our government needs to set up programs that provide people who are using meth or cocaine with safe, prescription forms of the same drug. There is a prescription version of meth called Desoxyn that is on Health Canada's special access program. It can be imported into Canada and used to set up a stimulant maintenance program. This is something Canada has to invest in. The same goes for cocaine, which is also used in some cases as local anaesthesia.
To combat the overdose epidemic, we need programs that provide safe versions of what people are using on the streets. This is a must if we are to save people who use drugs.
Thank you.