Madam Chair, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for his thoughtful work on health committee.
The president of the Canadian Medical Association is calling on Canadian politicians to have an open and courageous debate about decriminalizing opioids in the face of the overdose crisis.
The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police has struck a special committee to study decriminalizing or legalizing illicit drugs in response to the opioid crisis.
Toronto's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Eileen de Villa is calling for the decriminalization and the potential legalization of all drugs for personal use as a way to curb opioid-related deaths.
I could go on and on.
Every stakeholder who has come before health committee and who works in the field of addiction says the same thing. The reason people are dying by the thousands in Canada is because they are being poisoned by a street level, tainted drug supply.
All things being equal, if we could do one thing and ensure those people have access to the health system to clean sources of drugs of known dosage and known origin, at least we could stop those people from dying.
Does my hon. colleague disagree with that and those stakeholders? Could he maybe explain why, if he does feel this way, he is opposed to at least studying the decriminalization of drugs as a way of dealing with these deaths?