Mr. Chair, I would like to talk about current drug policies and what the member might think about the best way forward.
I am going to quote from Dr. Patrick Smith, the national CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association. He said:
Criminalizing people who use drugs stigmatizes substance use, fosters a climate in which they feel unsafe in accessing life-saving interventions and treatment, and further marginalizes those living in poverty or at social disadvantage. The war on drugs doesn't work and it's time we lay down our weapons and start getting people help.
Dr. Perry Kendall, B.C.'s provincial health officer says:
Focusing on people who have become dependent on drugs as criminals means we spend a lot of money on law enforcement, which doesn't actually appear to have stemmed the appetite for drugs...It hasn't helped move people who are dependent on drugs into health-care facilities; in fact, they have become very marginalized over time. Because they are marginalized, their use of drugs has often gone up, and has been accompanied by HIV and hepatitis C infections.
The police chief of Lethbridge, Rob Davis, said that they could not arrest their way out of this problem.
Does my hon. colleague believe it is time we stopped the failed war on drugs, which wastes billions of dollars and does not actually do anything, and instead deal with addiction and substance use as a health and social justice issue?