Health committee  I agree completely with no reservation.

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  From my point of view, I think it's very difficult. I don't know how long the delay would be, but I would imagine it wouldn't be too hard to add the breach of parole and breach of probation as an amendment quickly, and then discuss the warrants at a later date. I really don't wan

Health committee  I'm concerned. We need to act now. It is just one of many other pieces of the puzzle that we're trying to help.... All deaths should be preventable from an overdose. This is one that will help and improve, but it's one of many.

Health committee  Basically, it drives people to hide their use, which means that people will hide their use and use in a much more risky way. They will not tell other people that they are using.... Harm reduction is a pragmatic approach. It really accepts people where they are and then works with

Health committee  If it can be done without delays, then yes. As I mentioned, breach of probation and breach of parole should be included, definitely. That's a simple addition to have to it. I think including the warrant with regard to drug-related offences would be ideal. The other thing to ment

Health committee  Yes, I would agree, definitely. Certainly in our research we heard that it's breach of parole and breach of probation as well as outstanding warrants. I think that obviously a blanket immunity for an outstanding warrant probably is not appropriate or would be difficult, but I thi

Health committee  As I mentioned, 37 states in the U.S. have good Samaritan or 911 drug immunity laws and they also sometimes are for low-level possession, but often will include supervision violations as well. There is evidence when they did a survey in Washington state, the vast majority—88% of

Health committee  Certainly, for the last 10 or so years, Vancouver police have not routinely attended overdoses. There are obviously certain times where the police will attend whether it's due to a death, whether there's concern around violence, or safety of the responders and the police. As I me

Health committee  I know overdose is when somebody has over and above what the body can tolerate. We do know that, frequently, it's not just a single substance that is causing the overdose, and it may be taken intentionally or unintentionally. We know that people can respond and if they make a p

Health committee  Thank you for the opportunity to present today. I'm a public health physician and a professor at the School of Population and Public Health. I'm also the harm reduction lead at the BC Centre for Disease Control. I wish to provide some evidence about the overdose crisis in B.C.,