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In our drug policy work, the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition (CDPC) acknowledges the colonial ideologies, systems, and processes in which we operate within.

We strongly feel that we must emphasize that colonial systems continue to cause harm and that our work is embedded within these systems. CDPC is a part of Simon Fraser University—and large institutions such as these move in ways that are often rigid, culturally insensitive, and uncreative when it comes to working with Indigenous peoples. This is evident when it comes to paying Indigenous people in ways that are culturally respectful. The protocol of requesting receipts and invoices, and sometimes waiting for weeks to get paid, is a huge barrier to many—and a disincentive to collaboration processes that must be meaningfully addressed.

We feel it is important to acknowledge that there have been times when we acted insensitively and are grateful to those who have taken the time to educate us on how these processes may not best serve key groups that we truly wish to serve efficiently and compassionately. We are moved by these relationships and would like to honour them by striving to improve how we ensure our Indigenous allies are paid in a way that works best for them.

Municipal governments, along with federal and provincial governments, have an important role to play in reforming harmful drug policies. To support public health and human rights, the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition (CDPC) advocates for full decriminalization of simple drug possession and necessity trafficking*, investment into social supports such as housing, expansion of safe supply and harm reduction measures, and legal regulation of all drugs under a single regulatory framework.

To forward key policy changes such as decriminalization, and to support harm reduction measures such as supervised consumption sites, having support from city council can make all the difference in implementing the changes that are needed to address the drug toxicity crisis.

​​*Necessity trafficking is sharing or selling drugs for subsistence, to support personal use, or to provide a safe supply.

Throughout the country, dozens of events are being held on August 31 to honour those who have been lost to drug overdose and to raise awareness of the toxic drug poisoning crisis. The following list of events are just some of the initiatives our friends and partners are holding to acknowledge this day:

ENSEMBLE:

In collaboration with John Howard Society, ENSEMBLE is having a free community BBQ on August 31st from 11am-3pm for International Overdose Awareness Day (80 Weldon St, Moncton). We will also be doing free Naloxone training! Individuals can submit names of loved ones lost to the toxic drug supply to [email protected] and we will display them on hearts to commemorate them.

ENSEMBLE is also hosting a candlelight vigil at city hall on August 31st at 8pm. They will read out names, light candles and take a moment to collectively grieve. 

Click here for details.

Location: 80 Weldon Street, Moncton, BC.

The Powerview-Pine Falls/Sagkeeng Harm Reduction Network

The Powerview-Pine Falls/Sagkeeng Harm Reduction Network and the Sagkeeng Health Centre Wellness Team are holding a 4-day community event for overdose prevention. 

Sagkeeng Arena Complex and Sagkeeng Arbor
Aug 23 – 26, daily from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. (see poster for details) 

Moms Stop The Harm:

Moms Stop the Harm encourages members to consider a variety of actions in your community on August 31 to mark IOAD 2022. These include:

• Make, wear and distribute purple ribbons.
• Organize or participate in an IOAD event.
• Leave an empty purple chair for your loved one. Take photos and share on social media.
• Demonstrate what a regulated, safe supply could look like. You can do so by ordering a demonstrator box to display at your event. Order by Aug 10, 2022 by sending your name, address and event to [email protected].

Check out the different communities they’ll be in on August 31 here!

Ryan’s Hope and Moms Stop The Harm

Ryan’s Hope and Moms Stop The Harm will be meeting at City Hall for a flag raising, proclamation from the Mayor, and a short ceremony of remembrance. Organizations will be on hand to hand out harm reduction kits, and naloxone. 9:30 a.m. at Barrie City Hall, 70 Collier St.

Ryan’s Hope and Moms Stop The Harm will meet in honour of those we have lost for a time of remembrance, celebration, and mourning. Speeches, a moment of silence, and a candlelight vigil will be held. If you would like your loved one honoured, email your photo and memory to [email protected]. 8 p.m. at Barrie City Hall, 70 Collier St.

United Way Simcoe Muskoka

To align with Overdose Awareness Day, United Way Simcoe Muskoka is hosting a documentary screening of Flood: The Overdose Epidemic in Canada, which tells the human story behind the overdose epidemic. Following the screening will be a panel discussion with local experts and people with lived experience to shine a light further on this local crisis. It is a free event, tickets here: https://tickets.algonquintheatre.ca/TheatreManager/1/online?performance=2226

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. show starts at 7 p.m. at Algonquin Theatre in Huntsville, 37 Main Street East.

Sandy Hill Community Health Centre

Please join us for guest speakers, narcan training and tabling by related organization! 11:30 am at 120 Lisgar st – Human Rights Monument.

Chilliwack Community Action Team and Shxwha:y Village

Mountainside Harm Reduction Society is partnered with the Chilliwack Community Action Team and Shxwha:y Village to host an event on Wednesday August 31st from 12pm – 4pm. Resources, memorial activities, drug checking and consumption services, support groups, free food trucks & a live butterfly release will be happening at 44680 Schweyey Road.

Blood Ties Four Directions – Yukon

Blood Ties Four Directions will be holding a space where the community can share memories and hopes for change in a supportive sharing circle. We will be providing a memorial tree for those who have passed and candles. We will also be having a few speeches and introducing the “Getting to Tomorrow dialogue”. We will be providing some stew and bannock for refreshments. Our event will take place on the 31st from 11am-2pm (6189 6th Avenue Whitehorse, Yukon).

The East Kootenay Network of People who Use Drugs

The East Kootenay Network of People who Use Drugs will be hosting a Candlelight Vigil in honour of all of our dead friends at 6:00pm 🕕, Wednesday August 31, at Street Angels.

The East Kootenay Network of People who Use Drugs will be hosting our 3rd annual protest 🪧 in Cranbrook. We will meet at ANKORS at 12:00pm 🕛. From there we will march through down town Cranbrook, to City Hall.

Black-CAP

Join us on 31 August 2022 as we raise awareness of overdose and reduce the stigma of drug related deaths. It’s a time to remember our loved ones and a time to act! Learn how to recognize and respond to an Overdose. Naloxone training and kits are available. 12 pm – 4 pm at Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Center (854 Bloor Street, West).

Avenue B

Avenue B will be hosting a Harm Reduction Fair at Kings Square from 10 am – 2 pm with tables from Moms Stop the Harm, SUNAR, Avenue B (including Naloxone training), Ridgewood, Riverstone Recovery, and more. 100 King St, Saint John.

ANKORS:

ANKORS, the Rural Empowered Drug Users Network, Mental Health and Substance Use, Circle of Indigenous Nations Society, Nelson Fentanyl Task Force, Freedom Quest, The HUB, Kootenay Boundary Supported Recovery, and other local resource providers and groups will be hosting a Vigil from 1 pm – 2 pm, and a Knowledge Walk from 2 pm – 3 pm in Cottonwood Falls Park, Nelson.

Coalition of Substance Users of the North (CSUN) and Community Partners

CSUN and community partners are inviting the community to attend their event on August 31st from 12 pm – 3 pm. The event will take place at the front entrance of the walking bridge on Front Street. They will be hosting an opening ceremony, open mic, memorial flower drop, Elder/partner/honourary guest acknowledgement, and closing ceremony. Learn more about the event here.

Maple Ridge Street Outreach Society

Join the Maple Ridge Street Outreach Society for a Pancake brunch to honour and remember loved ones lost to the Fentanyl poisoning epidemic. The event will be a space to share food and stories to remember our loved ones and call for actions. The brunch is from 10 am – 12 pm at Neighbourhood House, 11739-223 Ave in Maple Ridge. Learn more about this event here.

Mission Overdose Community Action Team

Mission Overdose Community Action Team will be hosting a memorial art walk from 4 pm – 7 pm. Please meet at 1st Ave in Mission. Art will be displayed on First Ave. with support of the Mission Downtown Business Association. Live Music, Resources, Refreshments, Empty Chair Campaign, Naloxone training, conversation. Memorial open mic & guest speakers 5:30pm. Learn more about this event here.

ROAR – Reducing Overdose: Abbotsford Response

ROAR will be hosting an event from 11 am – 2 pm at Jubilee Park. There will be Keynote speakers, Naloxone training, information booths, interactive art activities, and food trucks. Learn more about the event here.

Sunshine Coast Community Action Initiative

The Sunshine Coast Community Action Initiative is hosting an event from 3-6 PM at Hackett Park in Sechelt, BC. Enter the park at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Dolphin Street. The event will bring recognition to the lives lost to overdose and call for action from government to work harder to decrease the fatalities from this crisis. The event will include speakers, music, local resources, and an intentional space to memorialize those who have been lost.

Memorial for Overdose Outrage

The Memorial will start between 1:30pm until about 3 pm. Please meet in the courtyard (churchayard next to 955 Queen St E). 

CN Tower Illumination

In honour of IOAD, the CN Tower will be illuminated in purple for all to see.

Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre

Join the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre from 11 am – 3 pm for their event.

More Events in Your Community

To find more events being held in your community, check out these comprehensive lists:
https://www.overdoseday.com/canada/
https://www.momsstoptheharm.com/ioad

Share Your Event

To submit a public event to be listed on our webpage or email newsletter, email [email protected] with your event time, location and details.

WARNING: This post contains mention of sexual abuse

On May 12th, 2022, Canadian Drug Policy Coalition (CDPC) posted a statement. The CDPC statement, removed from the website drugpolicy.ca on May 20th, addressed concerns involving an incident of sexual abuse that came to light in 2018, within a clinical trial conducted by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies in the United States (MAPS) and also implicated MAPS Canada. The CDPC statement suggested that there were reports that MAPS “ignored, minimized, suppressed and used a participant’s formal account of sexual assault to coerce her into a position of extreme social and economic precarity”. CDPC had not independently verified any such reports. CDPC has retracted the CDPC statement. We apologize for any errors within the original statement. CDPC maintains its unequivocal support for victims of clinical malpractice engaged in psychedelic therapeutic trials. 

We would like to make explicit that the May 12^th CDPC statement and this statement do not necessarily reflect the views of the over 50 organizations that are members of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition.

So many in our community have been lost to toxic drugs that it’s hard to keep track. That’s a horrible feeling. We want to honour and respect each individual, so forgetting them, even for a few seconds, is such an injustice.

It is distressing to admit that so many people have passed that you can’t even remember them all. Who would have known when we were kids playing tag on the school field or skateboarding through the streets, that some friends would not be growing old with us? Who could have predicted that one day they would be alone and no one would be there to help when they needed it most? I wish I could go back in time and tell them how cool I thought they were; that I loved them. They enriched our lives, inspired us and contributed to our community. They were beautiful people who were ripped from us, leaving behind a dark hole that can never be refilled.

Unfortunately, nothing is changing, in fact it’s getting worse. We don’t know who we are going to lose next. Scrolling through my feed on social media, the dreadful news is almost anticipated and followed by frantic texts to learn the truth. As my head is flooded with the final memories I have of that friend, I can hear my own voice:

“Don’t give up; your daughter needs you.”

Those were the last words I recently shared with a friend who passed away soon after. Because of outdated, racist drugs policies, that little girl doesn’t have a dad, we’ve lost our friend and our community has lost one of its brightest spirits.

---

International Drug Users’ Remembrance Day is a time to remember the people whose lives were lost due to ongoing criminalization and stigmatization of People Who Use Drugs. On this day we renew a call for an accessible safe supply of drugs to end the drug toxicity crisis.

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Today marks the National Day of Mourning for workers killed or injured on the job. CDPC’s executive director Donald MacPherson participated in a memorial ceremony in Vancouver, B.C. to honour those who have died or have suffered injury or illness due to a work-related tragedy.

The Day of Mourning is a stark reminder of the urgent need for a safe supply of drugs in B.C. and across Canada, and increased access to harm reduction measures in the workforce.

In British Columbia, the majority of employed people in the province who died of toxic drug poisoning from 2017 to 2021 were employed in the trades, transport, and equipment operator industries.

The impact of the drug poisoning crisis on those in the trades, construction, and transport industries can be attributed to factors such as managing physical pain, mental health, and a culture of substance use within the industry. ¹

According to the 2022 report, BC Coroners Service Death Review Panel: A Review of Illicit Drug Toxicity Deaths, 35% of those who died of drug toxicity from Aug. 2017 to July 2021 were employed at the time of their death and over half (52%) of those employed worked in the trades, transport or as equipment operators.²

On this National Day of Mourning for workers killed or injured on the job, the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition is renewing its calls for an immediate, robust scale up of safe supply alternatives to the toxic illegal drug market and federal government action to decriminalize simple possession of drugs in Canada to reduce stigma and engage workers who may be at risk of drug toxicity deaths.

To further explain why these workers are disproportionately impacted, the Substance Use and the Workplace: Supporting Employers and Employees in the Trades toolkit produced by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction states,

“It is common for people in these types of jobs to experience work-related injuries, stress and pain. They may not have or know where to find the resources they need to take care of these issues. This could lead to using pain medications and other substances more often to cope.” ³

In January 2022, the province announced new funding for the Vancouver Island Construction Association (VICA) to expand its Tailgate Toolkit project – a program aimed at harm reduction and prevention of toxic drug poisoning in B.C.’s construction industry. According to the province, the project will raise awareness of pain management and reduce stigma associated with drug use.⁴

References:

1. https://thetailgatetoolkit.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Kelowna-five-fold-metropol.pdf
2. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/birth-adoption-death-marriage-and-divorce/deaths/coroners-service/death-review-panel/review_of_illicit_drug_toxicity_deaths_2022.pdf
3. https://www.ccsa.ca/sites/default/files/2022-02/CCSA-Substance-Use-Workplace-Employers-Employees-Trades-Toolkit-2021-en.pdf
4. https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2022MMHA0003-000044

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April 13, 2022

The Honourable Carolyn Bennett, M.D., P.C., M.P.
Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health

The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos Minister of Health
cc: Hon. Sheila Malcolmson, B.C. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions

Dear Ministers Bennett and Duclos:

Re: Proposed cumulative threshold of 4.5 grams in BC

We write as a coalition of over 20 civil society organizations in Canada, comprising people who use drugs and their families, Indigenous and racialized groups, service providers, legal organizations, research groups, and drug policy advocates. Our mission includes abolishing criminal and other laws, policies, and practices that control, stigmatize, pathologize, and punish people who use drugs.

We understand Health Canada is considering British Columbia’s request for an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to decriminalize simple possession up to a cumulative threshold quantity of 2.5 grams. As you know, this is far lower than the cumulative threshold of 4.5 grams requested by the province — already an exceedingly low cumulative threshold for many people who use drugs and near-unanimously rejected by BC’s Core Planning Table on Decriminalization.

Ministers: there is no legal or evidentiary basis for a cumulative threshold of 2.5 grams. Per the recommendation of our 2021 platform, we urge you to reject this quantity and dispense with threshold quantities altogether.¹

As we’ve routinely communicated to you, there are significant risks of “net-widening” in defining a threshold that does not reflect real-world patterns of use. Drug markets will adjust to a low threshold, including via changes to the potency and amounts of drugs held or sold, potentially increasing overdose risk. Other harms resulting from a 2.5 grams threshold may include the incentivization of interactions with the unregulated market as people try to avoid criminalization by frequently purchasing smaller amounts.² Those who will be most profoundly harmed by a low threshold will be Black, Indigenous, and other racialized, marginalized, and low-income communities, who are profiled and disproportionately arrested and incarcerated for drug offences.

A 2.5 grams threshold flies in the face of your governments’ commitment to evidence-based drug policy, anti-racism, and reconciliation with Indigenous communities. It sets a dangerous precedent for other municipalities across Canada seeking an exemption. It disregards the recommendations put forward by BC’s Core Planning Table and caters to the unsubstantiated, stigma-based requests of police. We know Health Canada has met with police as part of its decision-making process, while requests from drug user-led groups like the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) have been ignored entirely.

Decriminalization must be done right. You have a moral, legal, and ethical responsibility to uphold the human rights of people who use drugs; this requires you to centre their expertise. A 2.5 grams threshold will continue to inflict grave harms on our communities and must be abandoned.

We ask that you therefore:

1) provide us with the rationale and evidence for a 2.5 grams threshold; and
2) meet with us this month to ensure that the perspectives of people who use drugs
are prioritized and the recommendations of the BC Core Planning Table are ultimately adopted.

Signed,

Avenue B Harm Reduction
AVI Health and Community Services
BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres
Blood Ties Four Directions
British Columbia Centre on Substance Use
British Columbia Civil Liberties Association
CACTUS Montreal
Canadian Association of People who Use Drugs (CAPUD)
Canadian Drug Policy Coalition
Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy
Centre d’intervention et de prévention en toxicomanie de l’Outaouais (CIPTO)
Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation
Drug Users Advocacy League
Drug User Liberation Front
ENSEMBLE Services Greater-Grand Moncton
Gilbert Centre
HIV Legal Network
Indigenous Harm Reduction Network
Moms Stop the Harm
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies Canada
Ottawa Inner City Health
Pivot Legal Society
South Riverdale Community Health Centre
Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU)

Additional signatures (added April 21, 2022 onwards)

Association des intervenants en dépendance du Québec (AIDQ)
Sandy Hill Community Health Centre
EACH+EVERY: Businesses for Harm Reduction
Sandy Hill Community Health Centre
PAN
Student Overdose Prevention and Education Network (SOPEN)
Gilbert Centre

1 Decriminalization Done Right: A Rights-Based Path for Drug Policy, 2021: https://www.hivlegalnetwork.ca/site/decriminalization-done-right-a-rights-based-path-for-drug-policy/?lang=en. 

2 A. Greer et al, “The details of decriminalization: Designing a non-criminal response to the possession of drugs for personal use,” International Journal of Drug Policy 102 (2022) 103605.

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