Mr. Speaker, In 1999, there was a drug crisis in Portugal. Use of hard drugs was rampant, and approximately 1% of its population reported a drug addiction. Therefore, in 2001, Portugal decided to treat the possession and use of small quantities of drugs as a public health issue, not a criminal one. It decriminalized the use of all drugs, even heroin and cocaine, and unleashed a major public health campaign to tackle addiction. Though possession is still legally prohibited, violations are treated as administrative infractions and removed completely from the criminal realm. That means getting caught using or possessing drugs could result in a small fine or a referral to treatment where appropriate, but not jail time or a criminal record.
The crisis in Portugal soon stabilized, and the ensuing years saw dramatic drops in problematic drug use, infection rates, overdose deaths, and drug-related crime. Portugal's mortality rate from drugs is now four times lower than the European average; the number of teenagers who have experimented with drugs has fallen, and the number of people in treatment has increased. Ninety per cent of public money spent fighting drugs is now channelled toward health care goals. Just 10% is spent on enforcement.
In contrast, in Canada, 70% of funding spent combatting drug use is spent on enforcement. We have the second highest rate of cannabis use among young people in the world, and an opioid overdose crisis that is staggering. Four thousand Canadians lost their lives to overdoses in 2017, up from 3,000 in 2016. We are on track in 2018 to exceed that death toll, with as many as 6,000 Canadians dying from overdoses.
In British Columbia, overdose deaths spiked in March, marking the province's second highest monthly total in history. At the Liberal Party's recent policy convention, delegates voted overwhelmingly to back Jagmeet Singh and the NDP's position on decriminalization and medical regulation as a means of responding to drug overdose deaths. A coalition of 200 family, friends, organizations, policy experts, including former Liberal leader Bob Rae, impacted by the overdose crisis, wrote an open letter urging the Liberals to:
...be the progressive government you promised to be, choosing human rights and evidence-based policy over ideological relics.
We need you to listen to our voices as we call for the essential next step: decriminalization. The example of Portugal and other European countries illustrates that this policy works.
We ask you to prevent thousands of more unnecessary deaths by supporting this resolution.
However, both the Liberal Minister of Health and the Prime Minister responded by unequivocally ruling out action.
The Liberal government has also refused to launch an investigation or initiate legal action to recover damages from opioid manufacturers for the tragic consequences and public costs of this crisis. Instead, Liberals have left victims to seek recourse through a private class action lawsuit. This resulted in a proposed settlement of $20 million, with a paltry $2 million allocated to provincial health authorities. Thankfully, the settlement was rejected because no steps were taken to ensure that past and potential future public health care costs were identified. This stands in contrast to aggressive action from U.S. government authorities, which has led to almost $700 million in damages and criminal convictions for improper marketing.
What message does it send when thousands of Canadians die from overdoses and our government fails to seek justice? We owe it to the memory of those lost to this crisis to hold those who profited to account. We need significant federal money for addiction prevention, education, treatment, and harm reduction. We need to stop treating the most vulnerable members of our society like criminals.
Given the severity of the opioid crisis, and that we expect more deaths this year, why will the Liberal government not even consider these evidence-based proposals?