Mr. Speaker, drug overdoses in Vancouver alone average 147 yearly. Together in Toronto and Vancouver last year there were over 400 deaths from drug overdose. This is acute; that is just two cities.
I would venture a guess that there are well over a thousand overdoses a year in this country. Then again, that is what the committee has to determine. How serious is this thing? Often in little towns like mine there is a death from overdose but it is not recorded that way. Some are and some are not. Perhaps somebody on drugs was driving a car and killed himself. It is very loosely defined.
In regard to other countries, I have read a lot about the experiment in Holland. Some say it failed. Some say it was the only way to deal with it. Some say it created a greater drug trade in Europe. Other countries promote the drug trade. In some of the southern countries, one of the main national incomes is from drug exportation. In British Columbia, B.C. bud is traded in large quantities to the south in return for money or cocaine coming north.
I honestly have not read about a completely satisfactory solution in any country. At least this committee should be able to come back here and say whether the world has a problem or that several countries seem to be addressing it better and we should be focusing in that direction. However right now this country is all over the map on the issue. Provinces and even cities are tackling it in different ways. We have to do something better.