Presentation made by Susan Shepherd for a Panel discussion on Alternatives to the War on Drugs in Canada, hosted by the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP) - @CSSDPRyerson and @UofTCSSDP chapters in Toronto, October 2019. Susan Shepherd is the Director of the Toronto Drug Strategy Secretariat, the policy unit in Toronto Public Health that supports the implementation of the Toronto Drug Strategy and the Toronto Overdose Action Plan. Audio: soundcloud.com/cssdptoronto/awod-cssdp-01

1. Public Health Approach
to Drug Policy
Alternative to the War on Drugs
in Canada
October 9, 2019

2. Presentation overview
• Canada’s current drug laws
• Community dialogue on a public health approach
to drugs
• What’s next?

3. Canada’s drug laws
• Controlled Drugs & Substances Act provides
current legal framework based largely on a
criminal justice approach.
• Criminal Code and Youth Criminal Justice Act
support enforcement of the CDSA.
• Canada is also signatory to three international
drug treaties.
• Our drug laws are not based on science or
evidence.

4. Community dialogue background
• One of the key strategies
recommended in the Toronto
Overdose Action Plan.
• Worked with diverse steering
committee to advise on
process + develop discussion
paper and fact sheets.
• Contracted Ipsos Public
Affairs to facilitate the
community dialogue process.

5. Four components
1. Two community sessions:
Downtown + Etobicoke
(60 participants)
2. Twenty (20) interviews
with people who use
drugs
3. Open online survey: 346
respondents
4. Representative general
public survey: 503
respondents

6. What did we ask?
• How well is our current approach to
illegal drugs working?
• Awareness of health/social harms of
existing drug laws?
• Level of support for a public health
approach to drugs?
• Should the federal government
consult about decriminalizing
personal use of all drugs?
• Should they consult about legally
regulating all drugs?

7. Definitions
Decriminalization
Removal of criminal penalties for the personal use +
possession of drugs, but the production and sale of
drugs is still illegal.
Legal regulation
Drugs are legalized with controls over how they are
produced, distributed, sold and consumed.
Public health approach
Comprehensive, including prevention, harm reduction
and treatment. Can also include decriminalization or
strict legal regulation.

8. Public Health Approach
CPHA (2015) A New Approach to Managing Illegal Psychoactive Substances in Canada

9. What are the harms of criminalization?
• Negative beliefs/stereotypes of people who
use drugs.
• Difficulty finding work and housing.
• Difficulty accessing needed services.
• Forcing people into unsafe
spaces/behaviours.
• Illegal markets with stronger drugs for higher
profits.
• High enforcement costs - $2 billion annually.
• Some groups affected more than others.

10. Benefits of decriminalization
• Portugal: Decrease in drug use among
vulnerable populations, increase in people
seeking treatment, significant decreases in
HIV (85%), and deaths.
• Czech Republic: HIV rates are less than 1%
among people who inject drugs- one of
lowest rates in the region.
• California: $1 billion in criminal justice
savings cannabis was decriminalized.
• Improved police/community relations.

11. What did we hear from Torontonians?
• Canada’s current approach to drugs is broken.
• We should address drug use as a public health
and social issue, not a criminal issue.
• Decriminalization is a step in the right direction,
but is not a panacea.
• Strong support for a public health approach to
drugs.
• Legal regulation, and a public health approach
that focuses on harm reduction, is the ideal
solution.

12. Recommendations
1. Call on the federal government to decriminalize the
possession of all drugs for personal use, and scale up
prevention, harm reduction and treatment services.
2. Call on the federal government to convene a task
force to explore options for the legal regulation of all
drugs based on a public health approach. The task
force should include people who use drugs, and
policy, research and program experts in the areas of
public health, human rights, substance use, mental
health, and criminal justice.

13. What’s next?
• Priority issue on the drug policy agenda
• Growing momentum globally
• Impact of Canada’s federal election?

14. Thank you!