Should drugs be legalized to provide untainted doses to addicts?
Posted Feb 18, 2017 8:21 am.
Last Updated Feb 18, 2017 11:02 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – As the overdose crisis continues, there have been calls from some to legalize drugs to ensure users are not taking in deadly substances.
The idea of providing drugs legally to users is nothing new, and the logic is simple: provide clean, untainted drugs to those who are addicted, so they don’t accidently consume something deadly like fentanyl that perhaps they didn’t know was in there.
But as the body count from this ongoing overdose crisis continues to rise, Health Minister Terry Lake is again being asked whether it would be something BC would support.
“I think, though, that you have to be cautious in approaches — what works in a country like Portugal may not work in a country like Canada,” says Lake.
“These conversations need to be had, but I think they have to be comprehensive discussions. I don’t think anything can be considered in isolation of potential other impacts.”
This follows a call from chief coroner Lisa Lapointe to provide clean heroin to a small group of drug users who don’t respond to other treatment.
