Frontenac County endorses Public Health call for decriminalisation of opioid drugs

Jeff Green | May 26, 2021

Dr. Susan Stewart, the chair of the Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington (KFL&A) Community Drug Advisory Committee, asked Frontenac County Council to endorse a call for decriminalisation of people who use drugs, a position the Community Drug Advisory Committee is supporting, which has been endorsed by the Board of Directors of KFL&A Public Health

In a presentation to the May meeting of Frontenac County Council last Wednesday (May 19) over Zoom, Stewart updated Council on the COVID bump in drug overdoses and deaths that has been seen across the Province and in KFL&A as well.

In the first 4 months of the pandemic, the death rate associated with opioid use in Ontario was up by 40% over the rate in 2019.

In KFL&A there is data available for the entirety of 2020. There were 34 confirmed deaths related to opioid use in the region, and 5 that are listed as probably related. In 2019 there were 28 confirmed deaths related to opioids.

Dr. Stewart described opioid deaths as a “shadow pandemic” during the COVID pandemic.

“We are seeing Increased stress and fear in our communities, and this has led to increases in the use of substances,” she said. “In addition to that there are more barriers to accessing harm reduction because of COVID, and there has been an increase in the toxicity of the unregulated drug supply.”

“We are seeing this happening in our medium and small cities and in our rural areas,” she said.

Seeking a different strategy for drug use has been a long-term project for Dr. Stewart and the Community Drug Advisory Committee. Decriminalising drug possession, and use, is part of this new strategy.

“Current approaches don’t support the health and well being of people who use drugs”, she said. “We are looking for a different path forward, a suite of principles, policies and practices that shift focus away from the substances and back onto people. It positions substance use as a health issue not as a criminal justice, and not as a moral issue. It helps reduce stigma associated with drug use. To be clear, decriminalisation is not the same as legalisation. People who have and use a small amount of personal possession of drugs would not be subject to legal sanctions, however the sale and trafficking of drugs would still be illegal and subject to sanctions.”

“We ask the Frontenac County Council to endorse the KFL&A Community Drug Strategy Advisory Committee’s statement of support for the decriminalisation of people who use drugs,” said Smith.

Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle, who is also the chair of the Board of Directors of KFL&A Public Health, said “Portugal and other countries have been leading the way on this, 30 of them so far, and we want to see Canada be one of them,” he said.

I totally support this resolution,” said Councillor Frances Smith, the Mayor of Central Frontenac. “In my previous job in Hastings County I was involved in harm reduction committee’s and needle exchange programs. It was an issue in rural Hastings and it is in our own communities as well. Our firefighters have been called in to bring people back. It is not a city issue, it is all around us, I certainly have been affected, personally by this. I think we need to support this and all work together to save some lives,” she said.

A motion of support was approved by Council later in the meeting.