Alberta Premier alarmed over move to decriminalize some illicit drugs in British Columbia

Alberta supports dealing with addiction as a health-care issue while keeping our communities safe. We should never have to choose between the two. We have spent the past three years putting in place unprecedented resources to fund and create treatment services so that people with the illness of addiction can get their lives back.

Kenney says the Government of Alberta will be monitoring the situation closely warning that Alberta is prepared to exhaust all options should their actions cause damage to Albertans.

The Premier suggests the move is politically motivated. He says Prime Minister Trudeau specifically said he would not decriminalize drugs in the last election. “This is clearly a result of the Liberal-NDP coalition and was likely demanded by the NDP as a condition of the agreement.”

The province notes that since 2017, 50 percent of people who fatally overdosed in Alberta spent time in a provincial correctional centre in the two years before their death. Eighty per cent of them were there for non-drug related offences and the remaining 20 per cent were there for drug trafficking offences. Since 2017, fewer than five people who were arrested and sent to jail for simple possession died of an overdose. Therefore, the notion that decriminalizing drugs will have any significant effect on the overdose crisis is simply not grounded in reality.

Kenney is strongly urging the Government of Canada to focus efforts on the interdiction of deadly and dangerous drugs at the border.

“Yesterday’s statement from Premier Kenney was a slap in the face to the thousands of Albertans who have needlessly lost their lives under his watch, and the families, friends and community members who continue to mourn their loss,” said Chris Gallaway, Executive Director, Friends of Medicare. “Rather than doubling down with highly torqued political rhetoric, the Premier must do his job and treat this like the public health crisis that it is, starting by reversing this government’s deadly attacks on life-saving harm reduction programs.”

Later today (June 1), the organization notes that the House of Commons will be voting on Private Members Bill C-216, tabled by NDP MP Gord Johns. Friends of Medicare says the bill would decriminalize simple possession, and outlines a national health-based strategy to reduce harm. The organization says this is an evidence-based public health approach that would allow people who use drugs to seek help when and how they need it, without fear of prosecution. Friends of Medicare says the bill has widespread support from stakeholders and thousands of Canadians who have signed an online petition spearheaded by Moms Stop the Harm.

“This public health crisis has been allowed to continue unaddressed for far too long. People are dying for access to supports, and doing so in record numbers,” said Gallaway. “Hollow talk of abstinence-only ‘recovery,’ while doubling down on ideological rhetoric far removed from the reality of those in our communities does not and will not save lives. Our governments must act decisively, by supporting harm reduction efforts, safe consumption services, safe supply, and by moving forward with decriminalization.”

by Regan Tate

Alberta Premier alarmed over move to decriminalize some illicit drugs in British Columbia

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