Health committee  Yes, it needs to be repealed. There are 26 labourious steps to open a supervised consumption site in any jurisdiction in this country and that is slowing things down. It is making it difficult, and we only have two or three sites. It absolutely needs to be repealed.

Health committee  I absolutely think we should legalize, or let's start with decriminalization. That's a bit easier than legalizing drug use, so let's decriminalize drug use in this country. I want to clarify what you're asking. Are you saying that if we grant immunity to people on scene, then we

Health committee  It's my belief that an overdose is a medical emergency and it's not a criminal act. I think that needs to take priority at an overdose scene. Police do often arrive at overdose scenes for a variety of reasons. Fire crews arrive as well in the city quite often. I don't think we a

Health committee  I understood part of your question.

Health committee  Do you mind repeating the crux of your question in English for me, just the nuance that I'm not touching? Thank you.

Health committee  Absolutely.

Health committee  Do you mean if the police departments were telling people who use drugs, “We won't charge you”?

Health committee  My concern with the police disseminating the information again is around trust. The community of people who use drugs need to hear it from people they trust. They need to hear from someone they can trust that their health and safety is a priority and that they won't be charged.

Health committee  So it has more weight if it comes from...? I see, okay.

Health committee  The relationship between the people who use drugs in this particular jurisdiction and the police is not a good one. There's not a lot of trust, so the community often takes care of itself. They try to manage the overdose on their own without calling 911. There was some earlier di

Health committee  There are a number of ways that we can communicate if this bill is passed. We can communicate this bill to people who use drugs. I am one of maybe 30 people in the city—maybe 40 or 50 really—who have daily contact with people who use drugs. We also have a very large peer network

Health committee  That's true.

Health committee  The pharmaceutical companies need to be involved. One of the reasons why we're facing this fentanyl crisis is because OxyContin's formula was changed a few years ago. We squash one drug—we squashed OxyContin, or we changed the chemical makeup of OxyContin so it couldn't be tamper

Health committee  I'm not sure how many years ago—Jane may know—Portugal decriminalized the use of small amounts of all drugs. The use of drugs is a criminal activity in this country. Their overdose deaths and overdoses have plummeted so that is one strategy. We've talked a lot about opioid substi

Health committee  Yes, I would agree with that. I also believe that having police not attend overdose calls.... There are quite a few things we need to put in place for people calling 911 to feel comfortable 100% of the time. I think the immunity could be broadened. I understand that legislators