Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to speak here today.
We lost our oldest son, Ryan, when he was 26, and our nephew, Justin, when he was 38, to organized crime's toxic supply of drugs. As hard as it is, try to imagine losing your son or daughter, know that over 47,000 Canadians have died the exact same way, from the same cause, as your loved one, and then have to listen to our political parties choose to not acknowledge that these deaths were preventable if they'd implemented different policies.
Ryan, Justin and the vast majority of Canadians who have died to toxic drugs since 2016 would be alive today if they had been alcoholics or alcohol users, as we provide a government-controlled, safe and legalized source for those substance users. Shame on our federal leadership and elected MPs for choosing to ignore this truth and reality. Shame on those elected politicians who continue to politicize a health crisis, one that has killed more than the Second World War.
All political parties choosing to ignore this reality disrespect and minimize the deaths of Ryan and Justin and our families' grief and the 47,000 lives lost and their families' grief. These mass poisonings would not happen to any other demographic. We would not allow 22 people a day to die to the same cause, year after year, and not acknowledge what would save lives.
The prohibition of drugs is the single biggest contributing factor in all toxic drug deaths. It ensures and supports organized crime as the only supplier in every town and city in our country. We have wasted trillions of tax dollars funding a war on drug users—our family members, our friends and our colleagues. For more than 100 years, it has been an absolute failure. Prohibition can't keep drugs from flourishing in our prisons. Prohibition has directly created and supported a powerful multinational black market for organized crime that supplies and poisons innocent substance users.
The prohibition of drugs is a fantasy policy that is wishing it could keep drugs from entering our communities. The reality is that substance use is a normal neurobiological impulse that will always exist in humans. Legalization is the only policy to directly stop our loved ones from dying from toxic drugs and to address reality, just like legalizing alcohol and marijuana has. For political parties to call for only safer communities, more recovery and mental health beds, and forced and voluntary care, and to not choose to acknowledge all these serious and costly issues, will not change a thing until we address the cause: Organized crime is supplying toxic drugs.
Our son, Ryan, had been in recovery twice. The second time it was for eight months at a facility in New Westminster called Last Door. He returned to work as a third-year electrician. Ryan relapsed shortly after returning to work and died during his lunch break at his job site. Relapse is a normal component of the disease of addiction. When this happens, our federal drug policy forces those who fight a disease back to organized crime to get what their body demands. For what other disease would we allow organized crime to fill a prescription?
The major foundation of most recovery facilities is abstinence only rather than harm reduction. Again, that does not address the reality that addiction is not a choice but rather a disease, with a 92% relapse rate for those using opiates. Recovery played a major part in Ryan's death, as his tolerance was low due to his eight months of sobriety when he relapsed.
Recovery needs to be based on more than a faith-based 12-step program that was introduced over 90 years ago. Science and medical intervention need to be funded to address and cure addiction. What other disease do we treat the same as we did 90 years ago?
The politicians who call for recovery as the be-all and end-all are choosing to ignore the truths and realities of recovery. It does not address, and nor will it stop, the deaths of youth, first-time and recreational users, as they are not addicted. It's like these thousands of people somehow don't exist. Recovery will not save all chronic users for many reasons, just as all alcoholics do not enter into recovery. To not acknowledge these lives is morally wrong, a failing of responsibility, and once again showing that all lives are not equal—or matter—to politicians. Votes are valued over lives.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, our B.C. provincial health officer, stated this summer that prohibition is responsible for the death crisis we are in, and that legalization and regulation minimize harms. As an epidemiologist and health professional, her recommendations are based on evidence and science. Political parties base policy and recommendations on the net gain of votes.
Our son Ryan and 47,000 Canadians have died to toxic drugs supplied by organized crime, which is supported by the prohibition of drugs. What else do you need to know to stop this mass poisoning, these preventable deaths?
Thank you.