Thank you for that question.
I think as a way of responding, I will say that one thing we have observed in British Columbia is that a lot of misinformation is being spread in the public realm about the toxic drug crisis and the interventions directed at trying to save lives. That misinformation is really harmful. It has the potential to have devastating effects, should, for example, supervised consumption sites be closed, as mentioned by Dr. Larney.
We at First Nations Health Authority are in support of a full spectrum of prevention, harm reduction, detox, treatment and recovery, and aftercare. I think what happens with the spread of misinformation for purposes “other” than—you know, for politicization purposes—is that it increases stigma, for example.
When people use the term “drug dens” to describe supervised consumption sites, it's really abhorrent. The body of evidence that lives have been saved at supervised consumption sites is very strong. We've already used the broken leg analogy in this committee. We have centres that provide dialysis, for example, for people with kidney failure so that they don't have to travel long distances. We don't call those dialysis places "drug dens", but because of the stigma against mental illness and people who use substances, we do with them.
I think that has proven not to b every helpful. It has been harmful.