Health committee  No, the conundrum is that we refuse to do what is right under our very nose, like the last example we just talked about in the committee. We make a choice. By not allowing people access to a pharmaceutical stimulant like Adderall, Desoxyn, or these substances, we basically delive

Health committee  Well, there's certainly a growing body of research that shows that engaging people who use substances like methamphetamine in meaningful involvement in the arts, recreation, or community-building enterprises is helpful. People are really pushed away from society, pushed away from

Health committee  People use a lot of substances. They are polysubstance users, so it's not always that simple to just to treat one drug at a time. You heard that in Vancouver, 40% to 50% of people using one of the overdose prevention sites use methamphetamine. They probably use other drugs as wel

Health committee  There's some research out there. It's often not a question that the research looks into, but there's a fair amount of research that demonstrates the wide range of reasons people use drugs. I would certainly be happy to direct you to that.

Health committee  It's very much a federal-provincial issue. The federal government could take leadership with standards and supporting innovative guidelines similar to what the Province of B.C. has developed. We need to lengthen the continuum of options that people have, including low-threshold t

Health committee  No, as Ian Culbert said earlier, meth use is very low. It's one of many substances that our courts, our border agencies and our police focus on, as well as our health side. We haven't been able to pull out the numbers in terms of the economic cost for methamphetamine by itself.

Health committee  That's a conundrum, when we talk about decriminalization. People generally have to get the supply from the illegal market, and right now in Canada, the illegal market is a contaminated market. I'm not suggesting that we should not decriminalize. Decriminalization is really sayi

Health committee  In the long term, yes. I think we underfund addiction and mental health services to a great extent across the country.

Health committee  It's not easy to have these discussions with some sectors of society. What we learned in Vancouver in implementing the four pillars drug strategy, which had a very big focus on harm reduction, was that if you get people together in a room and really talk about the common goals, y

Health committee  I'll begin by thanking the committee for the invitation to appear today to discuss this important issue with you. I have been working in the field of drug policy for over 25 years at the community level and then as the drug policy coordinator for the City of Vancouver as we crea

Public Safety committee  What Bill C-2 doesn't take into account is the tremendous amount of consultation that goes on at the city level through Development Permit Board hearings, and the notification of residents of any new use, whether it be a detox centre, an injection site, or a police department. Th

Public Safety committee  Thank you for inviting me to speak to this committee today on such an important issue for Canadians, especially those experiencing severe addiction and mental health issues. In our brief, which is a collaboration with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, we have outlined many of

Health committee  Absolutely. I agree totally with Dr. Selby. Having an agitated person in front of you is much better than having a person who is not alive. It's great that Ontario is doing their work. The BC Centre for Disease Control is doing a pilot program too. These programs seem to be ha

Health committee  First of all, the federal government needs to be playing a huge leadership role in education. It comes in under the prevention language in the CCSA document. It's finding a way to show the leadership to make responding to accidental overdose deaths common knowledge in communities

Health committee  We're referencing one of the recommendations of the “Do No Harm” document. Clearly that is one of the key areas that needs to be looked at, although it's one of several areas that need to be looked at. We're just promoting the notion that we've taken a very hard evidence-based lo