Councillor wants city to explore decriminalizing possession of small amounts of illegal drugs
Edmonton city council will hear a motion that could be the city’s first step toward decriminalizing minor drug offences.
The issue was on the agenda of Monday's city council meeting, but was rescheduled for Wednesday after discussion on other items went long.
The motion is being brought forward by city councillor Michael Janz, who is hoping to change the way harm reduction and the treatment of addiction are approached in Edmonton.
“We need to take a new strategy,” said Janz. “This is the first step. It’s about moving drugs away from a criminal justice or an abstinence approach and moving it more towards a public health approach.
“We’ve seen across Canada that the current approach to drugs is not working, that almost 1,400 Albertans died last year from drug poisoning. How many more people have to die before we change course?”
Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto are already calling on the federal government to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of illegal drugs, hoping to take on the opioid crisis and prevent further deaths caused by drug poisoning.
Janz said the first step for Edmonton will be looking to those cities as an example.
“With that information, we can then move forward as Edmonton in building our own solution,” he said.
“Along with harm reduction measures, safe consumption sites, safe supply, these other measures that can help save lives, save money, save communities, and provide better outcomes than the current failed war on drugs.”
"We need to explore these options," Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said Monday.
"This report…will allow us to hear from different stakeholders, from health professionals, from experts in the health field and community safety field, it will allow us to hear from police services and others who may have different views on this," he said.
Sohi didn't clearly say if he supported decriminalization or not, but suggested removing criminal charges from the equation might help people get clean and get their lives back.
"We need to look at what are the consequences when they are charged for possession of a small amount of substance that they might be using and how that puts them into the justice system and also impacts their future abilities and opportunities," he said, adding there's much more to battling the city's opioid crisis.
"We need treatment, we need harm reduction, we need housing for people who are able to be housed, we need to look at mental health issues, we need to look at historical trauma."
'WE CAN'T AFFORD NOT TO DO IT'
According to Alberta’s substance use surveillance system, 93 per cent of overdose deaths in Edmonton last year involved fentanyl.
Petra Schulz, Co-Founder of Moms Stop the Harm, is supporting the potential move to decriminalization. Her son died of an accidental fentanyl overdose in 2014.
“He hid his substance use from us, his friends, from work. We didn’t know he had relapsed,” said Schulz.
“Some of the treatments that are readily available now weren't readily available then and certainly harm reduction wasn't available when Danny died.
“I’m very pleased that this new council and our mayor is not ignoring the issue.”
In a statement, the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police said it does “not currently support the decriminalization of illicit drugs, without the required supports being in place.”
“We cannot support a broadly implemented policy of decriminalization until a modernized public policy framework is created involving a thoughtful and integrated approach with all levels of government and across all ministries,” it read in part.
Schulz disagreed with the police chiefs, proposing decriminalization is an important tool for helping people recover from addiction.
“We can't afford not to do it. We have, depending on the month, four or five people die every day in Alberta,” said Schulz. “Because a person who uses (drugs) problematically will not stop using because a police officer took their drugs away. It harms individuals and it harms communities.
“(Decriminalization) would allow us to shift resources from policing, from the criminal justice system, to the health and social services sector.”
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Alison MacKinnon
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'I just can't believe that it took so long': Body found in wreckage 3 months after deadly fire
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
No proof man lied to brother about number of kittens born in litter, B.C. tribunal rules
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Quebec police hand out hundreds of tickets to Hells Angels and other bikers before 'first run' meeting
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Parliamentary report on Emergencies Act decision is 18 months past due — and counting
The erstwhile group of senators and MPs studying the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act over the "Freedom Convoy" was supposed to present its findings in December. December of 2022, that is.
Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
A candidate for Germany's key party was beaten up while campaigning for European elections
A candidate for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left party in next month's election for the European Parliament was beaten up and seriously injured while campaigning in an eastern city, the party said Saturday.
Russia puts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on its wanted list
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
Snakes almost on a plane: U.S. TSA discovers a bag with small snakes in passenger's pants
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.