Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: I rise today as the critic for 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, which was introduced by the Honourable Gwen Boniface.

Honourable colleagues, Bill S-232 addresses an alarming and worrisome public health issue in our country. Drug use continues to kill many Canadians every day, and it impacts the health of thousands more. Some of the deadliest psychoactive substances are the notorious opioid analgesics, such as heroin and fentanyl.

According to the Canadian Alcohol and Drugs Survey, CADS, 4.4 million Canadians aged 15 and up reported having used opioid pain relievers in 2019, up 12% from 2017. Of those 4.4 million people, 269,000 reported problematic use of those drugs. According to the Government of Canada, there were 3,556 opioid-related deaths from January to June 2022, an average of 20 per day. Of those deaths, 76% were caused by fentanyl overdose.

Yes, the opioid crisis in Canada is raging, but we must not lose sight of the impact of other types of illegal drugs on many Canadians. According to CADS, in 2019, 1.1 million Canadians reported having consumed drugs in one of the following six categories: cocaine and crack, speed and methamphetamine, ecstasy, hallucinogens, heroin and salvia. In Quebec, those drugs killed seven times more users than fentanyl from January to April 2022.

Drug use not only kills people, it also has major impacts on the lives and health of drug users. In addition to their harmful mental and physical effects, drugs can insidiously compromise the user’s social, professional, intimate and financial life. For some, life spirals out of control and, sadly, they end up homeless. In 2019, over one million Canadians reported that drugs had negatively impacted their own lives.

Drug use also affects crime rates linked to family violence, theft and sexual assault. Honourable senators, drug use is a serious public health problem in Canada. It deserves more of our attention so that we can come up with constructive solutions to help people struggling with hard drugs and to effectively fight traffickers, who exploit human misery for profit and must be held accountable for the many lives lost.

In Canada, we may need to consider the sale of deadly drugs as nothing less than premeditated murder. Bill S-232 is a legislative response to the substance abuse problem that I just described; according to the critic, it has two objectives.

The first objective is to require the federal government to consult with the provinces and territories in order to present Parliament with a national strategy for the decriminalization of all drugs. The second objective is to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, to repeal the provisions that make possession of certain substances an offence. In other words, we are talking about decriminalization from a purely legal point of view.

In my view, a third objective is missing from Bill S-232. It should include a provision requiring the government to develop a concrete public health strategy that provides for detox before decriminalization.

While I applaud Senator Boniface’s useful work and the laudable objectives of her bill, I believe that the approach of outright decriminalization of drugs is premature and that it only partially addresses the problem.

In her speech at second reading, the senator indicated that the part of the bill seeking the total decriminalization of simple possession through the repeal of drug law sections would be done by an order-in-council issued by the Governor in Council, and according to their wishes, after the strategy is finalized so it can be put in place, if this bill passes.

When it comes to public health, it is rare to see anyone want to decriminalize anything while waiting to see what happens later. That is this government’s strategy. Decriminalization for the Trudeau government is not a public health strategy; it is dogma.

The senator’s approach is certainly prudent. However, I would like to state an important caveat on this point: Nothing in the bill states that this strategy, which is apparently complete and takes all challenges and perspectives into account, has to be implemented and analyzed first before the possibility of decriminalizing all drugs can be considered.

I think it is premature and even dangerous to consider passing a bill that proposes repealing sections of the law that criminalize simple drug possession at this stage of the process, when no complete strategy has been implemented, which might well take years to happen.

This is an important point, colleagues, because the bill we are studying does not set any legislative framework to decriminalize drugs. As a result, any possession of any illicit drug for personal use will no longer be considered criminal, regardless of the nature of the substance and the quantity in possession.

It is important to keep in mind that the purpose of the bill is to prevent drug overdose deaths, which are largely attributable to a bad supply that is extremely dangerous.

People use illicit drugs without knowing what is in them or where they came from. Often the user is not aware that those drugs may contain all sorts of harmful or deadly substances, such as fentanyl-type opioids or fentanyl analogues. That is especially true of crack.

I would like to share with you a sad incident that occurred last Friday in Laval to demonstrate how dangerous Bill S-232 is and how it could give drug users and the population in general a false sense of security.

I am talking about the murder of 61-year-old Mireille Martin. I want to take this opportunity to express my deepest condolences to her family and friends. Mireille Martin led a quiet life in an apartment building near her nephew, Jérôme Frigault, an ordinary young man in his 30s. According to his best friend, Jérôme regularly took methamphetamine tablets, commonly known as speed. Late last Thursday, the Laval police went to Ms. Martin’s address after receiving a complaint about excessive noise coming from her apartment. They left without taking any action. Two hours later, Mireille stumbled out of her apartment bleeding and died on the sidewalk after being stabbed to death by her nephew, who was in a psychotic state.

She was yet another victim, another case of femicide. To date, 2023 has been a record year in Quebec for this type of criminal death. Was this murder preventable? Possibly, given that the police who arrived at the scene two hours prior to the tragedy would have likely noticed the murderer’s agitated state. Why did they not remove him from the building or take him to hospital until he calmed down? The investigation will undoubtedly shed light on this horrible tragedy, or at least I hope it will.

This is a compelling example of why I fear decriminalizing all drugs, especially the deadliest ones. This bill gives drug users and politicians alike a false sense of security. What is more, it throws the door wide open to drug dealers.

It is all the more disturbing to note that the more lethal the drug, the smaller the quantity consumed. Therefore, most of the time, it is difficult to prove that the quantity of drugs seized was for the purpose of trafficking.

I would like to give you another example of how young people interpret the decriminalization of dangerous drugs as normalization. According to today’s edition of La Presse, the number of Quebec teens using illegal vapes to consume cannabis has exploded over the past four years, tripling since 2019. According to doctors, vaping cannabis increases the risk of addiction and mental illness.

According to a 2023 survey of approximately 24,000 adolescents, 12% said they use cannabis, compared to 15% in 2019. However, 66% said they vape cannabis, compared to 20% in 2019. Teens acquire cannabis vapes on the black market because it is illegal to sell them to anyone in Quebec, even adults.

Some of these devices are rechargeable, while others, called wax pens, are disposable. Some schools report students fainting after using them. The fact is, the vape juice these young people are consuming can contain as much as 90% THC, compared to the 30% maximum in products sold by the Société québécoise du cannabis.

This desired decriminalization, regardless of its potentially deadly risks, will undoubtedly lead to the same outcome as the legalization of cannabis, a drug with an illegal market that still controls 50% of sales today. This means that 50% of consumers buy cannabis of uncontrolled quality and origin.

This highly touted decriminalization will have little impact on death tolls or lethal drug trafficking, because, for the past eight years, the federal government has failed to implement any kind of strategy to guide consumers to public health services for detox support, like Portugal did when it introduced a detox strategy prior to decriminalization. Portugal’s strategy was a success. To do otherwise and believe we could achieve the same result is totally irresponsible.

Bill S-232 takes a somewhat simplistic and especially dangerous view of Canada’s illegal drug market. We have a duty to do better. Most importantly, we have an obligation to avoid making the situation worse by putting more lives in danger.

Bill S-232 in no way addresses the issue of minors. I would remind my colleagues that the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Criminal Code apply to anyone aged 12 or over, and that the Youth Criminal Justice Act does not contain a specific provision criminalizing drug possession. Without important clarifications, Bill S-232 will allow adolescents to possess any type of psychoactive substance in undefined quantities, without giving the police or judicial authorities any powers to prevent or dissuade teens from using them. This important aspect must not be overlooked, in order to avoid any unintended consequences to Senator Boniface’s desired objective.

Honourable senators, I will quote another passage from Bill S-232, but first I would like to point out that I’m opposed to the very principle of this bill.

In my opinion, the decriminalization of all drugs runs contrary to the balance that is needed between the problem of drug addiction and criminal justice objectives.

Now I’d like to talk about how the justice system has already adopted diversion measures for drug possession over the past 10 years.

Currently, our justice system is adapting more and more to the drug addiction issue. You will recall that Bill C-5, which we passed on November 17, 2022, provides diversion measures for simple drug possession in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

Three new paragraphs that came into effect with the passage of Bill C-5 read as follows:

I would also remind senators that the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act already contain provisions granting discretionary power to the justice system to delay sentencing so that a person who has been found guilty of an offence can participate in a drug treatment court program. If that program is successful, the offender may receive a reduced sentence. What is more, if the offence is punishable by a minimum term of imprisonment, the court is not required to impose that minimum prison sentence.

I would like to quote subsection 10(4) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, which states the following:

Finally, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada Deskbook already contains directives on how to deal with the opioid overdose issue. Here is one of them:

The Guideline seeks to avoid short durations of incarceration for violation of bail conditions by accused with a substance abuse disorder. This Guideline was created in order to address the epidemic of opioid overdoses through a targeted focus upon the risk of opioid-related overdoses by those with a substance use disorder.

The examples I have just cited demonstrate the pragmatism currently being shown by the Canadian justice system. The balance it has subtly attempted to strike over the years between the problem of drug addiction and the objectives of criminal justice shows a willingness to adapt to the addiction situations experienced by drug users. In my opinion, it is inappropriate to remove the important role played by the justice system and to treat the problem of drug addiction as a public health issue. In fact, this bill is almost a decade behind the Canadian justice system.

Honourable senators, possible exemptions under the current law already exist. These exemptions allow the Minister of Health to identify cases and conditions under which possession of narcotics for personal use can be acceptable in our society. These exemptions help ensure some degree of control, with an opportunity to set guidelines for drug possession, while recognizing specific needs and authorizing the tools and means to support harm reduction among certain populations, for example, by establishing safe injection sites.

These injection sites exist almost everywhere in major Canadian cities. People can show up to these sites and consume narcotics. These centres provide people with a safe place, with sterile consumption equipment, where health professionals are on hand to respond to emergency situations.

The exemption set out in section 56 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act allows the staff to possess small amounts of controlled drugs in the course of their professional activities. Analyses to test the composition of a drug can also be performed before clients of these centres consume their drugs, thus preventing accidental deaths due to the presence of undesirable substances. Some users can also obtain medical prescriptions for the consumption of controlled substances under medical supervision, under this exemption to the law.

That is the approach taken by British Columbia, which requested and obtained an exemption to be able to experiment with the decriminalization of drugs at the provincial level. That exemption is valid until January 31, 2026.

British Columbia is being hard hit by fatal opioid overdoses. Thanks to this exemption, in British Columbia, any adult can possess 2.5 grams of four types of illegal drugs: opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine, and MDMA. Moreover, this exemption does not apply in certain locations, such as elementary and secondary schools, child care facilities, airports and aboard Canadian Coast Guard ships and helicopters.

Honourable senators, given that exemptions already exist in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and that the justice system is adapting each and every year to the problem of addictions, I do not consider it either useful or responsible to remove the role the justice system plays in addressing this problem.

I agree with Senator Boniface that we need a national strategy that provides better social services and more support to users, who should also be offered medical treatment.

Decriminalization could never be the ultimate solution to the drug addiction problem for the reasons I have already outlined.

In my analysis, Bill S-232 in its current form is a far too simple a response to a very complex problematic situation.

Most importantly, it does not include plans for a real public health strategy to combat drug addiction. This bill risks creating even bigger problems if a comprehensive strategy is not developed before we think about decriminalizing drugs.

Decriminalization should only happen if it is truly a desirable solution, after comprehensive studies and analyses have been conducted. That is not yet the case.

Let’s hope we will have the opportunity to address these issues in committee soon. Thank you very much.

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