It would laudable for the federal government to take a very health-focused approach, recognizing that problematic substance use is a disease. People come to problematic substance use for a number of reasons: childhood traumas, as Dr. Burgess mentioned, which we see a great deal of; the effects of colonization, which we also certainly see; other traumas that they've experienced through their life; or because it's what their friends were doing. Whatever the reason, they are now in a place where they are experiencing problematic substance use. They need the substance that they're used to.
Some people say we should just lock them up and force their treatment. That doesn't work. It hasn't worked for several hundred years.
Dr. Evan Wood of the B.C. Centre on Substance Use recently proposed a model where those who are using problematic substances would have the opportunity to buy them “guaranteed safe”. They would pay for them.
It's a little bit frightening, because people are afraid to introduce substances. There are substances everywhere, and they are contaminated, so people are dying at a huge rate. We're seeing four people per day die here in this province. If they could at least access safe substances—substances they're already using— then they could stabilize. They wouldn't have to buy on an infiltrated market. They wouldn't have to steal. They wouldn't have to prostitute themselves.