The drug war must end: The right to life, liberty and security of the person during the COVID-19 pandemic for people who use drugs

Abstract

Since the start of the opioid epidemic in 2016, the Downtown Eastside community of Vancouver, Canada, has lost many pioneering leaders, activists and visionaries to the war on drugs. The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), the Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society (WAHRS), and the British Columbia Association People on Opiate Maintenance (BCAPOM) are truly concerned about the increasing overdose deaths that have continued since 2016 and have been exacerbated by the novel coronavirus (SARS-COVID-19) despite many unique and timely harm reduction announcements by the British Columbia (B.C.) government. Some of these unique interventions in B.C., although in many cases only mere announcements with limited scope, are based on the philosophy of safe supply to illegal street drugs. Despite all the efforts during the pandemic, overdose deaths have spiked by over 100% compared to the previous year. Therefore, we urge the Canadian federal government, specifically the Honorable Patty Hajdu, the federal Minister of Health, to decriminalize simple possession immediately by granting exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The Canadian federal government has a moral obligation under Sect. 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to protect the basic human rights of marginalized Canadians.

Prevalence, correlates, and quality-of-life outcomes of major or persistent pain among women living with HIV in Metro Vancouver, Canada

“…The use of criminalized drugs for analgesia also highlights the importance of harm reduction in mitigating the risks of opioid use for WLWH. Based on our findings, we echo calls for expanded “safe supply” services to provide pharmaceutical-grade alternatives to toxic street drugs along with decriminalization to facilitate destigmatization of substance use and remove police-related barriers to healthcare access [ 24 , 28 , 45 , 65 ].…”

Impacts of COVID-19 at the intersection of substance use disorder treatment and criminal justice systems: findings from three states

“…The focus on justice-involved individuals with SUD/ OUD also raises the question of decriminalization of drug use (Bonn et al, 2020;Kleinman & Morris, 2021;Maynard & Jozaghi, 2021). From population health lens, one solution to avoid the need for mass decarceration and associated problems in the event of another pandemic is to reduce the number of incarcerated individuals by decriminalizing certain activities such as drug use (del Pozo & Beletsky, 2020).…”

Harm reduction calls to action from young people who use drugs on the streets of Vancouver and Lisbon

“…In fact, the last decade has seen a sharp increase in criminal sanctions targeted at people who use drugs in Portugal, despite decriminalization [ 11 ]. 4 In Vancouver, people who use drugs in the context of street involvement continue to be heavily criminalized, and as mentioned above, there have been growing calls for the decriminalization of substance use in this setting [ 15 ].…”

“…Portugal decriminalized the use, acquisition, and possession of all drugs in 2000, moving towards a public health approach that integrated harm reduction, prevention, dissuasion, treatment, and reintegration [ 11 , 12 ]. In Vancouver, there have been growing calls for the decriminalization of substance use, including recent protests during which tested, unadulterated heroin, crystal methamphetamine (meth), and cocaine were distributed to people who use drugs [ 13 – 15 ]. In Lisbon as in Vancouver, there have been concerted efforts to draw people who use drugs into a continuum of care that ranges from the provision of sterile drug use paraphernalia to OAT (primarily methadone in this context) to abstinence-based residential drug treatment.…”