At left Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. At right drugs in a baggie
That point was somewhat buried in a city-issued news release Friday afternoon that indicated a steady uptick in overdose deaths since October.
"We are urging the government to take the next step and regulating all illicit substances", said Mary Clare Zak, managing director, social policy and project division at Vancouver's Healthy City Strategy and Social Policy department.
"The Portugal model in itself is successful because there are options for treatment, rehabilitation and those kinds of things", Zak said.
"The Portugal model" emphasizes harm reduction in conjunction with treatment instead of arrests and incarceration.
And the call came after January saw 33 recorded overdose deaths in Vancouver - the highest number the city saw since May 2017. The province of British Columbia, provincial home of Canada's third-largest city, set a record for drug overdoses in 2017 - hitting 1,000 by August.
"The fact is people are dying".
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"We need to do something", Zak said.
"We need to make sure we have a clean drug supply for people who are struggling with addiction and I think decriminalization is a big part of that".
Even though Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he's not looking to decriminalize harder drugs, Zak said the severity of the crisis calls for more drastic measures. The federal NPD recently took the opposite stance and is in favour of the shift. A decriminalization model sees criminal penalties - jail time and fines - removed for simple possession.
The Coroners Service did release any statistics showing whether or not any of January's fatal illicit drug overdose deaths had fentanyl detected, as those statistics are released quarterly.
"We are witnessing a horrific and preventable loss of life as a poisoned drug supply continues to kill our neighbours, friends, and family", Mayor Gregor Robertson said in the news release.
The crisis continues to put enormous pressure on first responders and community services. "Volunteers and first responders are working around the clock to keep people alive, but lives are on the line and more action is urgently needed". Of those five overdoses, one occurred in Northeast B.C., while the other four were in the Northern Interior Health Services Delivery Area of Northern Health.
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