Health committee I'm not sure exactly what you're talking about. I think we also have to recognize that long-standing personal, social and structural stigma that keeps people silent about their drug use and creates these barriers is not going to go away in a few months or even a year. This is one of a suite of measures that we need to take away some of those barriers that allow people to reach out and connect.
May 30th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Health committee I'm not sure what you're referring to. We don't have a legalization project.
May 30th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Health committee I'm not sure what you're referring to, but one of the things that we do know is that there is a perception—
May 30th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Health committee Let's think about this. There are perceptions and stories that we are hearing—
May 30th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Health committee We have not seen any data that there has been increased public drug use before and after decriminalization.
May 30th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Health committee I do not.
May 30th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Health committee Of course it's not acceptable. We all have concerns about public perceptions and public use, but this has not changed because of decriminalization—
May 30th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Health committee I don't have that data, but I can get it to you.
May 30th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Health committee Last we checked, the prescribed alternatives program had about 4,000 individuals.
May 30th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Health committee I don't think those are in competition with each other. There are things that work together, as we've heard about. We need a suite of things. People accessing pharmaceutical alternatives.... We know from the data—I refer again to the report I put out; we talked to a lot of people about this—that most of the prescribed alternatives are being used in combination with OAT.
May 30th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Health committee I don't think the term “hard drugs” is a term that—
May 30th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Health committee I believe that legalization...and prohibition is the cause of the issue. Legalization and regulation minimize the harms of all drugs.
May 30th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Health committee I'm not being obtuse. I'm being truthful in what I believe, which is that prohibition is one of the causes that has led to—
May 30th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Health committee —the crisis that we're in.
May 30th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Bonnie Henry
Health committee I support the legalization and regulation of drugs to minimize harms.
May 30th, 2024Committee meeting
Dr. Bonnie Henry