Hon. David M. Arnot: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Bill S-232, An Act respecting the development of a national strategy for the decriminalization of illegal substances, to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts.

Colleagues, I ask you the following: What is one of the greatest moral failures of the 21st century? My answer today is the opioid crisis. I believe I can safely predict that 50 years from now, Canadians will look back on this era and ask how legislators and policy-makers could have been so blind. How could they have steadfastly carried down a road that was so clearly leading to a dead end? I commend our colleague the Honourable Senator Boniface for putting forward this bill, as she has succinctly and convincingly argued that a national crisis deserves a national response.

Fundamentally, the impact of this national crisis on Canada is clear. The war on drugs is lost, and the cost is the lives of our fellow Canadian citizens.

Between January 1 and November 2 of this year, in my home province of Saskatchewan, the coroner’s office recorded 395 confirmed or suspected drug toxicity deaths. Over 90% of those deaths were related to fentanyl or fentanyl-like substances. As with most provinces, coroners only investigate under specific circumstances and at specific locations. Also, that data doesn’t show any of the people who were thankfully revived by naloxone, or who required an ambulance to an emergency room or hospital stay.

It has been reported that a single overdose can cost as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it can be even more: A long stay in an intensive care unit for an overdose can cost millions of dollars. The costs also say nothing of the personal, familial and community impacts of substance use disorders and drug toxicity deaths. Those impacts reverberate and persist.

Data suggests this assertion. For instance, the 2019 Canadian Alcohol and Drugs Survey — released at the end of 2021 — found that in 2019, 4% of Canadians reported having used at least one illegal drug. Other research found that an estimated 3% of Canadians have used one of five illegal drugs, including cocaine, or crack; ecstasy; speed, or methamphetamine; and hallucinogens. Further, almost 18% of Canadians report that they have used an illegal drug at some point in their lifetime, with hallucinogens being the most used. In 2019, 14% of Canadians reported being harmed in the past year due to someone else’s alcohol use, and 2% reported being harmed due to someone else’s drug use.

While illegal drug use is remarkably indiscriminate as to the lives it touches, some in our country are affected disproportionately through the criminalization of illegal drug use. Earlier this year, I had a discussion with two young doctors — Dr. Shayan Shirazi and Dr. Ryan Krochak — both who are students at the University of Saskatchewan. They spoke of the increased vulnerability to substance use disorders of Indigenous peoples being framed by trauma related to colonization.

Simple possession has led to over-policing and high rates of incarceration of Indigenous peoples. Over 30% of the Canadian federal inmate population is Indigenous, despite comprising approximately 5% of the Canadian population. In 2003, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation reported:

. . . the residential school system contributed to the central risk factor involved, substance abuse, but also to factors shown to be linked to alcohol abuse, such as child and adult physical, emotional and sexual abuse, mental health problems and family dysfunction. The impact of residential schools can also be linked to risk factors for poor pregnancy outcomes among women who abuse alcohol, such as poor overall health, low levels of education and chronic poverty.

I thank Senator Boniface and Senator Pate for exploring this ongoing impact and the disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous peoples, particularly Indigenous women.

I reached out to two women from my home province of Saskatchewan this year. These women — both of them mothers — share a bond forged in tragedy. They both lost sons because of tainted drugs. Marie Agioritis lost her son Kelly Best due to a counterfeit OxyContin pill laced with fentanyl in 2015. He was described as living “a life full of fun, love, laughter, plans, dreams, friends, and family . . . .” and had aspirations of becoming an electrician. Kelly was only 19 years of age. Ms. Agioritis pointed out to me that, in war, the first objective of peacekeepers is to deal with trauma. She also told me that there are too many talking points and not enough actions. One all-too-common and painful talking point that she hears about those substance abuse disorders is the old saw, “If you mess with the bull, you’ll get the horns.”

I am told that the youth of today do not believe this and that their perspective is different. I believe that youth are a source of hope; at the same time, they are the low-hanging fruit in a national strategy for education that is evidence-based and not driven by misinformed public opinion or tainted by the “if you mess with the bull, you get the horns” ideology.

Like Ms. Agioritis, Jenny Churchill is a tireless advocate for public education, supports and a medical-model view of substance use disorder. Ms. Churchill lost her son Jordan in 2018 due to a fentanyl overdose.

For her, a successful national strategy will be responsive primarily to the needs of three groups of Canadians: those with substance use disorders, people who use substances recreationally and the youth cohort.

Both Marie and Jenny are members of the Moms Stop the Harm group, a Canada-wide network of moms and families advocating for evidence-based treatment and policy change. They want policies and a national strategy that would do three things effectively: one, save lives; two, reduce health care costs; and three, reduce criminal behaviour on the streets.

A partnership research project with Moms Stop the Harm reported that over 19,355 Canadians died from opiate overdose between January 2016 and September 2020. A unique aspect of this research is that it involved those who had lost a loved one to an opioid overdose, mostly moms, almost half of whom experienced stigma or judgment from their peers after the death of their loved one.

Decriminalization is not a cure-all for that kind of pain or for drug supplies that are increasingly adulterated and contaminated by fentanyl and its analogues.

What decriminalization does is provide a venue for an individual — a person, a Canadian citizen — who uses or may be addicted to illegal drugs to be seen first as an individual, a person and a Canadian citizen.

The Canadian state has a vested interest in the health and well-being of all its citizens. The federal government has a duty and moral obligation to every one of its citizens. This is evident when government agencies work hard to repatriate Canadians stranded because of a global pandemic or conflict and war.

The war on drugs, by most accounts, is either an abject failure or a losing battle. We are losing because the war on drugs is most often a war on people whose lives hang in the balance. A recent study by Scher et al. found that “. . . Canada’s drug laws may shape public attitudes toward people who use drugs . . .” and create the resulting “. . . structural, social and self-stigma experienced by people who use drugs.”

As Dr. Harry Rakowski, a senior cardiologist at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre and Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto, asserted, “We keep losing the war on drugs because we are fighting the wrong enemy.” He argues that Canada needs to address the antecedent issues, harms, traumas and root causes. I agree that this is a necessary step. However, without a national conversation and strategy, we will not be able to address the root causes or challenge the concerns of those who argue for continued criminalization — concerns such as an increase in drug use; impacts on public safety, youth and international relations; and limited treatment infrastructure.

A truism about the justice system is that it is inherently reactive and only rarely proactive. I believe that Bill S-232 will create a national strategy for the decriminalization of illegal substances and will be an opportunity to be proactive in stopping the harm created by failed drug policies.

Dr. Shirazi and Dr. Krochak provided me with a well-researched brief in which they stated:

Canada’s drug toxicity crisis is a complex issue with no single or immediate solution; however, it is well established that substance abuse disorders are a medical issue, not a criminal one. Canada is not going to arrest its way out of its drug toxicity crisis. Ultimately, decriminalization is a policy that will save the taxpayer money, fight the drug toxicity crisis and, most importantly, save lives.

Experts have been clear, however, that decriminalization is not an ultimate solution, but may be a necessary step. This bill takes an important and necessary step toward finding solutions. It recognizes that substance abuse disorder is a public health issue and not a criminal justice matter.

Canada has a moral obligation to help individuals and our society through legislation and law, including in regard to offences under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

Five years ago, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police released a statement supporting:

. . . decriminalization strategies such as increasing diversionary opportunities, alternate sanctions and health partnerships, while exploring the evolution of harm-reduction techniques such as safe supply and supervised drug consumption sites.

The national conversation Bill S-232 proposes must consider the research and data that finds decriminalization is a means of harm reduction and, in turn, of enabling positive health outcomes.

Dr. Rebecca Seliga, a member of the University of Ottawa Department of Emergency Medicine, summarized this by stating:

While some may argue that decriminalization is just a buzzword alone, we already know that its counterpart, criminalization, does not work.

Colleagues, it is time for the conversation to begin in earnest; it is time for a national response to a national crisis. I support Bill S-232 and hope it will be sent to the committee as soon as possible. Thank you.

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