Decriminalization a good step, but safe supply key: chief coroner
“We have lost far more people to drug toxicity over the COVID pandemic than we have to COVID"
Thursday, June 2, 2022
To stop toxic-drug deaths, governments must provide a safe supply of drugs with the same urgency that they provided people with COVID vaccines, says B.C.’s chief coroner. “We have lost far more people to drug toxicity over the COVID pandemic than we have to COVID,” Lisa Lapointe said. Including the death toll for May, there have been more than 10,000 drug poisoning deaths in B.C. since 2016, when opioid overdoses were declared a public health emergency, she said. While decriminalization alone won’t save lives, said Lapointe, it could when paired with a regulated safe supply of drugs for people dependent on their use. (See also: MPs vote against bill to decriminalize small amounts of drugs across Canada | ‘We are losing a whole generation of Canadians’: Bill to curb toxic drug deaths defeated)
