Where They Stand: On the Toxic Drug Crisis

published on August 27, 2021 by Jen St. Denis and Moira Wyton in The Tyee

When drug policy advocate Leslie McBain looks through the platforms of Canada’s major political parties, she wonders whether they understand the toxic drug crisis that has killed more than 21,000 Canadians since 2016.

“It’s way down the list,” said McBain, one of the founders of Moms Stop the Harm, an advocacy group of parents who have lost family members to drug-related harms or substance abuse. “We have not heard a lot about it.”

While progress has been made in some areas, McBain said much is missing in the federal government’s response and that lives are on the line.

“We want them to talk about decriminalization in an educated way. We want them to talk about legal regulation similar to alcohol, tobacco and cannabis,” McBain said…

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