Pubdate: Tue, 08 Aug 2017
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2017 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.torontosun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: John Tory, mayor of the City of Toronto.
Page: 17

DRUG ADDICTS ARE NOT 'THUGS'

Any overdose death is a tragedy.

It's a preventable death and I consider it my duty as mayor to ensure
that the City of Toronto is doing everything it can to help prevent
those tragedies.

Each person who dies from an overdose is someone's son, daughter,
friend or loved one. They are human beings and they should not be
abandoned by society due to a particular addiction.

I'm proud to have the women and men of Toronto's public service
helping me in the fight against the overdose epidemic.

So far this year, there have been more than 40 overdoses at Seaton
House where a person has been saved with naloxone administered by
shelter staff we've trained.

"We've averted disaster" at Seaton House, Paul Raftis - general
manager at Shelter, Support and Housing - told those gathered around
the table with me last Thursday for an emergency meeting in the wake
of a recent spike in overdoses.

With our Overdose Action Plan, Toronto is one of the most proactive
cities when it comes to responding to the opioid crisis that has
spread across Canada.

Toronto Public Health and many councillors, including Joe Cressy and
Joe Mihevc, understand the need to be prepared. A well-planned,
coordinated response will save lives - that was the advice I received
from Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson whose city has been grappling
with this issue for years.

Our response won't create a new city bureaucracy and it won't swell
the ranks of the public service - despite what some critics of helping
those crippled by addiction might say.

This is a concrete plan that includes coordinating our existing
resources better across all city divisions and emergency services,
eliminating all possible roadblocks to sharing lifesaving information
at the municipal and provincial level, and ultimately making sure
first responders are equipped with everything they need to help.

There is no silver bullet to fixing this epidemic.

But, as we have learned, there are things we can do faster that may
help lessen this crisis. We're speeding up work on opening Toronto's
safe injection sites, equipping Toronto's firefighters with naloxone
faster and asking Toronto Police to consider having officers in key
areas carrying naloxone. Is there more to do?

I'm sure there is and I'm willing to consider anything that those
people who know more than I do about this are willing to think are
reasonable and is going to save lives. That's why I'm meeting with
some of Toronto's harm reduction workers this week to hear from them.

This is a community effort because it will take the whole community to
provide the best help possible to those in the grips of addiction.

It's the right thing to do, which is why I was incredibly disappointed
to see the city's efforts to save lives attacked in a Sue-Ann Levy
column in Friday's Toronto Sun.

While I have been prepared to acknowledge and take action on evidence
of poor government unearthed by Ms. Levy, I cannot and will not accept
her characterization of overdose reduction measures as "hug-an-illegal
drug user/thug."

To equate people struggling with one of the worst and most dangerous
addiction/mental health issues to "thugs" is way over the line.

Although she does write that she doesn't want to see deaths occur due
to drug overdoses, I'm further troubled by her statement that she
would give people about to die from an overdose "an injection of tough
love" as opposed to life-saving Naloxone as we are doing. Really?
We're just going to stand over someone's son or daughter and tell them
they should have known better and then let them die?

The people of Toronto would rightly not stand for such an approach and
I certainly won't as their mayor.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt