Madam Chair, I appreciate the opportunity to speak in this take-note debate.
I have listened intently throughout the hours we have spent on this. I have to admit to my colleagues that I am surprised at some of the issues that we are talking about. I really want to thank my colleague from Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola for allowing me to jump in as part of this debate today.
I was listening as the discussion was going on, and I really cannot believe that in this day and age we are talking about decriminalizing drugs, opioids, fentanyl, as well as the importance of safe injection sites. I want to take this opportunity to tell a personal story, something I have been through, and how I feel we are way off track on what we should be focusing on here.
We had lost touch with one of my best friends in the world. Less than two years ago, we actually had to break into her apartment, and when I saw her there, the look on her face and the condition she was in was permanently scarred into my brain. I took her to the South Health Campus in Calgary. The things that were going through my mind were not “I wish I could get her to a safe injection site” or “I sure wish that these drugs were decriminalized so she had better access to them.” As a parent of three kids, the things that were going through my head were, “How do I get treatment for one of my best friends in the world? How can I get her somewhere where she is not going to be doing these things again, whether it is safe or not? I want to do everything in my power to ensure that she no longer has to deal with this addiction.”
At the hospital, I could not believe the fact that, obviously, my friend had been in a very sorry state for several months. They had no bed for her, no treatment options. She was kept for a couple of hours, and thankfully, my wife and I took her home with us. We encouraged her to try to find some sort of treatment. We went back to the hospital. We went to the family doctor. We went to counsellors who we knew in our small community. Do members know how easy it was to access a treatment bed?