The BC Civil Liberties Association made a submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health, regarding the Opioid Epidemic and Toxic Drug Crisis in Canada. The BCCLA frequently engages in work that intersects with drug policy and the drug poisoning crisis, due to the overlap between these issues and the criminal legal system, Charter rights, and human rights impacts on marginalized communities.
The BCCLA is concerned that there has been insufficient focus on the extent to which criminal law and civil liberties issues have heightened the Toxic Drug Crisis. In the submissions below, we address three key concerns:
- The criminalization of drug use significantly exacerbates this crisis, due to dangers of arrest, stigmatization, and social support barriers.
- Police presence during wellness checks frequently results in violence, which deters people from calling emergency services for assistance.
- Involuntary treatment is a violation of drug users’ civil liberties and increases the risk of death.
