May 2024
While B.C.’s experiment with decriminalizing of hard drugs has been an utter failure, Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, believes that the Toronto version of decriminalization will work. It’s kind of like the current crop of North American socialists, who insist that their version of socialism will work, despite the fact that socialism has never been successful in any country that has fallen under its iron grip.
While harm reduction may be a noble cause, the best harm reduction is getting addicts off their poison of choice, not letting them continue until their foreseeable death. Any plan that doesn’t include treatment options is doomed to failure. I’m not in favour of forcing someone into treatment, as an addict/alcoholic won’t get clean until they are ready to do so, but enabling the addict hasn’t worked. Even without decriminalization, Toronto’s safe injection site program has been far from any definition of success.
