Pubdate: Tue, 13 Dec 2016
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2016 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Andrea Woo
Page: A6

CITIES WELCOME SUPERVISED DRUG-USE SITES

Ottawa has tabled a bill aimed at easing restrictions on the
facilities, a 'good sign' according to one Toronto city councillor

Municipal politicians in Canada's two largest cities are optimistic
that new legislation aimed at clearing the path for more supervised
consumption sites means they will finally be able to offer the
harm-reduction service next year.

Ottawa on Monday tabled Bill C-37, which would overturn yet another
piece of Conservative era legislation and advance the Liberal
government's plan to approach drug use as a public health issue.

Toronto recently submitted applications to operate three small-scale
sites, and said they have long been needed; Montreal applied almost
two years ago to have three supervised-injection sites and one mobile
unit. Vancouver, which is home to the only two sites sanctioned by
Health Canada, recently applied to open two more.

City councillor Joe Cressy, who chairs Toronto's drug-strategy
implementation panel, called Ottawa's announcement a "good sign" and
encouraging news for other cities.

The change would have no effect on Toronto's applications, as they
would be covered by the more stringent old rules. Toronto is also
awaiting word on whether the Ontario government will fund the three
sites.

"We still believe that we will be given [federal] approval imminently.
Our challenge is that we need to open these sites yesterday," Mr.
Cressy said. "The longer we delay, the more lives with be lost."

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said he is "pleased but
impatient."

"I hope the bill is adopted quickly because we've been experiencing a
veritable public health crisis," he said in a statement on Monday.

"It's not a question of ideology: We're talking about saving
lives."

The bill, which would amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act
and the Customs Act, is the beginning of a new federal strategy on
substance use disorder, federal Health Minister Jane Philpott said in
Ottawa.

"The big picture of the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy is that
it will replace the National Anti-Drug Strategy," Dr. Philpott said.
"It will reframe problematic substance use as the public-health issue
that it It will return the lead on the Canadian Drugs and Substances
Strategy to the Minister of Health, rather than the Minister of Justice."

Ottawa will reinstate harm reduction as a key pillar in this strategy,
the Health Minister is. said.

The bill would repeal the Conservatives' Respect for Communities Act,
which critics had called an effort to hamper supervised
consumption.

Under the new legislation, agencies that want to open such a facility
must meet only five conditions: Proof of the need; community
consultations; evidence about its impact on crime; adequate resources
to maintain the site; and regulations.

The previous legislation had 26 requirements for prospective
operators, including extensive community consultations; collecting
data and other information on crime, public nuisance and
inappropriately discarded drug paraphernalia nearby; and
criminal-record checks for staff members going back 10 years.

In an interview, Dr. Philpott said that while the specifics of the new
conditions are still being developed, applying will no longer be
onerous. Evidence regarding the impact on crime, for example, could be
research that has been done on Insite, Vancouver's 13-year-old public
supervised-injection site.

Ottawa is working to approve existing applications as soon as
possible, Dr. Philpott said.

Bill C-37 would impose a service standard so applicants know how many
days the process might take, Dr. Phillpot said. Status updates would
also be posted online.

This is not the first piece of Conservative legislation on drug use
the Liberal government will undo.

After Health Canada in 2013 granted special access for a few dozen
severely addicted heroin users in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to
receive prescription heroin outside a clinical trial, Conservative
health minister Rona Ambrose introduced legislation to ban physicians
from prescribing "dangerous drugs like heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and
LSD."

That was overturned in September, with Health Canada saying a
"significant body of evidence" supports heroin-assisted treatment.

Dr. Philpott said on Tuesday she believes the previous government took
the wrong approach to drug policy.

"They thought they could solve things with a law-enforcement approach
when even law enforcement officials themselves will tell you you can't
arrest your way out of the problem," she said.

"We've seen the escalating number of people dying as a result of
opioid overdoses. The previous government, in my opinion, was not
adequately recognizing this was a serious public-health problem … that
requires a policy approach that will see substance use disorder as a
chronic disease and not a moral failing."

In British Columbia, the province hardest hit by the overdose crisis,
622 people had died from illicit drug overdoses by the end of October
- - the highest death toll in 30 years of record keeping. Fentanyl, a
powerful synthetic opioid being cut into street drugs, was detected in
about 60 per cent of those deaths.

Carfentanil, a large-animal tranquilizer many times more toxic than
fentanyl, has since been detected in four provinces and is beginning
to fuel another surge in overdoses.

- - With reports from Jeff Grey in Toronto and Ingrid Peritz in Montreal
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt