Release: COPE will implement City-led safe supply in Vancouver

Today COPE City Council candidates Breen Ouellette, Tanya Webking, Nancy Trigueros, and Jean Swanson announced their policy on City-led safe supply.

The policy was announced on Main Street to reflect that this is an issue that affects everyone in the city and province.  

“The 50 people per month who die preventable deaths from poison drugs live everywhere in Vancouver – Main Street, the Downtown Eastside, Hastings Sunrise, Kitsilano, everywhere, and the folks who love them live all over too,” said Jean Swanson. “Public health officials and people who use drugs tell us that the solution is to provide a safe supply of drugs.”

 

The City of Vancouver will regulate legitimate organizations that provide safe supply

COPE’s City-led safe supply policy is distinct from other proposals because it takes advantage of the City of Vancouver’s business license power that gives the City the ability to regulate businesses.

“The city has been lobbying senior governments, and we will continue to do so,” said Breen Ouellette. “But we also believe that the city must regulate drug supply for the safety of the public in the absence of leadership from other levels of government.”

Under COPE’s policy, the City of Vancouver will not be directly providing safe supply. Rather the City will be using its powers to regulate compassion clubs and other legitimate organizations that are providing safe supply, creating a regulatory framework to support them in expanding access.

Specifically, COPE will establish City of Vancouver business licenses and regulations for compassion clubs and other legitimate organizations. The goal of this program is to provide consumer protection by ensuring there are safe, clean, and identifiable drugs within the city.

“Regulation of the drug supply means setting medical training and testing standards – in partnership with health authorities – for the compassion clubs and other legitimate organizations to meet,” continued Breen Ouellette. “These medical standards will ensure that drugs sold through licensed organizations are free from unknown substances and consist of the drug claimed to be offered. Like any other product that people put in their bodies.”

 

COPE will face any legal challenge from the federal government head-on with a Charter matter of “life, liberty, and security of the person”

Vancouver Coastal Health is currently providing training and equipment for compassion clubs, but does not have the power to regulate businesses. Health Canada recently denied a local compassion club an exemption from Section 56 of Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. In the absence of federal leadership on this issue, a COPE-led City Council will use the City’s legal expertise to protect the program from any federal legal disputes. Notably, Insite’s exemption was upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada under Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“We will face any challenge of the city’s consumer protection regulations head-on as a Charter matter of ‘life, liberty, and security of the person’, ” continued Breen Ouellette. “It is undeniable that the poisoned drug supply has killed thousands of people. Regulating safe supply is a matter of life and death. Any attempt to prevent consumer protection for people who use drugs is contrary to the protection of public health and the maintenance of public safety. This is an urgent safety issue that the city has the tools to address and COPE has the political will to enact.”

 

Why safe supply is so urgent and important

Safe supply is an effective measure toward public safety because it prevents deaths, protects health, and reduces illicit drug related crime. 

“Indigenous incidence of HIV in the Downtown Eastside if you’re an injection drug user is 27%,” said Tanya Webking. “In countries where drug use is decriminalized and comprehensive harm reduction is available, HIV prevalence and transmission tend to drop sharply among people who use drugs.”

The percentage of people who die from the toxic drug supply is even higher outside of the DTES because at least in the DTES there is access to narcan.

“The people who are dying are first-time users, weekend users, or those who use every other day or every day,” said Nancy Trigueros. “Conditions in the DTES and across the province would get better with oversight of the illicit drug market in several key ways:

  • Fewer people would die, and a tremendous amount less would overdose because they would know precisely what they are getting and how much 
  • People wouldn't be so traumatized by death after death of their friends and acquaintances
  • Regulated supply will undercut organized crime especially if government would provide the safe drugs like they provide alcohol
  • And fewer people would have to go to hospital for OD treatment and there would be less strain on the healthcare system.”

“In the absence of regulation, the illegal drug trade gets taken over by organized crime. Why don’t the police want safe supply? If they wanted to reduce crime, they’d support safe supply. We’re calling on the VPD and other public safety organizations to support safe supply immediately,” concluded Tanya Webking.

 

Contact

COPE candidates will be made available for phone, video, or in-person interviews. Please contact COPE for availability.

COPE: [email protected]