Ms Fiona Wilson:

With respect to resources, unlike Oregon, we have 12 overdose prevention sites in the city of Vancouver alone. Four of those have inhalation services because we know the majority of people now who are dying from illicit toxic drugs do so through inhalation. We have some good resources for sure in this province. However, when you get into more remote communities, those resources are sorely lacking. We were advised as we went through the decriminalisation process – that frankly police were very involved in for the year and half leading up to the exemption taking effect - that there would be a dramatic increase in health resources. Although there was some increase, there definitely was not an increase to the level that we believed was necessary. For example, if someone who was suffering from a substance use disorder decided that they wanted to get into treatment and get clean, there were still lengthy waiting lists to get into a treatment bed. We would have liked to see more harm reduction services but particularly more resources on the education, prevention and treatment side as well. However, in some of those rural communities, even harm reduction services were lacking. I would strongly recommend that if you are contemplating decriminalisation, it has to go hand in hand with a dramatic increase in health resources, particularly if you will try to direct people to pathways to health, which is what we intended to do.

I mentioned other jurisdictions that have rolled back decriminalisation. Vancouver and Oregon are examples of that. In Portugal, there have been some significant changes with respect to their situation as well. That is one thing seen in Portugal. There was a dramatic increase in resources at the beginning but as those resources are rolled back and taken away, they are seeing some problematic outcomes. I hope that answers the Deputy’s questions.