Mr. Kellen Russoniello:

Ideally, we would have everything. We would have decriminalisation and services in place. There would not be waiting lists and people could access treatment on demand. We need to be advocating for all of it. In places where people can get services without decriminalisation being in place, we should be advocating for increased services and for places where that is not possible, we should still be considering whether decriminalisation is an approach that can move forward. It really is about what problems these solutions are solving. Decriminalisation is primarily focused on reducing the harms of criminalisation, the number of arrests and the problems that come with having a criminal record for life. There is disruption to people's lives when they are arrested and are no longer able to access their job, housing or treatment because they have been incarcerated. That is a different but related concern to expanding services, which is ensuring people have the services available so they can improve their lives and communities. Ideally, we want all that to move forward together, but we should not wait for the perfect scenario to move forward with decriminalisation because we might never get there.