As the opioid overdose death toll continues to mount, B.C.’s chief medical health officer is hopeful the federal government will find some solutions in Portugal’s approach.
Dr. Perry Kendall said that instead of focusing on criminalizing individual users, Portugal focused on helping individuals.
“Looking across Canada there is an issue with criminalization that adds to the stigma.”
When heroin flooded Portugal’s streets in the 90s, Kendall says they shifted policy to police large-scale dealers, not individuals.
People who had problems with substance use were encouraged and offered either treatment, opioid substitution therapy, or harm reduction initiatives.
“The problematic substance use went down because people were moving into treatment and they didn’t have any big upsurges in people using drugs recreationally or experimenting.”
Last month Canada’s Health and Justice Ministers travelled to Portugal to learn more about their drug policy.
So far this year more 780 people have died of overdoses, compared to 935 people last year.