Can Canada overcome its drug overdose crisis?

Last year the Canadian Province of British Columbia, launched a landmark three year pilot programme on drug decriminalisation. For a number of years now communities across Canada have been facing their own opioid crisis, as drugs like fentanyl become more easily available.

Vancouver in British Columbia, whilst been one of those places always at the forefront of drug policy change, has seen an explosion in overdose deaths due to toxic drugs in recent years. So the city readily adopted the decriminalisation programme as a measure to try and help reduce the death rates. But now just over a year since its implementation, that pilot programme has been scaled back, and it now means that people found with drugs on their person in public places can be arrested again.

So, on this week’s Inquiry, ‘Can Canada overcome its drug overdose crisis?’

Contributors: Dr. Alexander Caudarella, CEO Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, Ottawa, Canada. Kennedy Stewart, Associate Professor, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. Aljona Kurbatova, Head of Centre for Health Promotion, National Institute for Health Development, Tallinn, Estonia Gillian Kolla, Assistant Professor, Memorial University, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Presenter: Charmaine Cozier Producer: Jill Collins Researcher: Matt Toulson Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford

Image Credit: Supervised consumption sites in the DTES (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)