It seems like every couple of days we hear about drug deaths and then less frequently about drug arrests.
Opioid overdoses seem to be at a crisis level across the country.
As the number of fatalities continues to rise, British Columbia’s addictions minister wants Ottawa to make a very bold move.
MLA Judy Darcy wants the prime minister to decriminalize opioids like he is planning to do with marijuana.
Prime Minister Trudeau is not interested. He says he is not decriminalizing anything but cannabis and that we’ll just have to find another way to deal with the opioid epidemic.
The reason the addictions minister wants opioids decriminalized is so users can buy them knowing what they’re made of instead of buying unsafe drugs on the street, hopefully cutting down on the number of people fatally overdosing.
The idea has some merit but where does it end, selling heroin and cocaine at the drugstore?
In some countries they make it unsafe to sell unsafe street drugs: they execute the trafficker.
Apparently we’re supposed to find something in between illegally shooting drugs and legally shooting dealers.
What would your solution be?
Bob Layton is the news manager of the Corus Edmonton group of radio stations and a commentator for Global News.
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