Canada S West Coast Leads The Americas In Drug Policy Reform

Special thanks to Gillian Maxwell, community activist and spokesperson for the Insite Community Safety Campaign in Vancouver, BC for her input on this article.

British Columbia has been leading the hemisphere in drug policy reform for years. The most recent civic elections confirm this point, and demonstrate the power of effective policy advocacy and public education.

In 1998, there was an HIV epidemic declared and an urgent need for new drug policies based on harm reduction. Service organizers and public health officials did as much as they could. According to Vancouver community activist Gillian Maxwell, “the severity of the situation necessitated a lot of actions very quickly.” She continued, noting, “a lot of education went on over an intense few years.” Thanks to their education and advocacy efforts, the first safer injection facility in North America was opened in 2003 – and despite federal government pressure, Insite remains open. Elected officials in British Columbia are accountable to a well-informed public.

Gregor Robertson, mayor-elect of Vancouver, supports Insite and even wants to revamp the city’s Four Pillars approach to drug policy – prevention, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement – with interactive, peer-led education programs that can help prevent future drug addictions. Robertson won by a landslide against his leading opponent who was running on a Law and Order platform that would have seen no further investment in safe injection facilities.

The new mayor-elect in nearby Victoria is also supportive of harm reduction efforts. Dean Fortin, who has served on the city council in Victoria, will work to find a permanent location for the city’s syringe exchange program, and see that it has sufficient funding.

Joining the Victoria city council this year will be longtime medical cannabis activist Philippe Lucas, who wrote the British Columbia Green Party platform on substance abuse and marijuana. Elections in other parts of the province bode well for drug policy reform, too – like in Grand Forks, where former Marijuana Party leader Brian Taylor is the new mayor-elect.

Canada S West Coast Leads The Americas In Drug Policy Reform

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