Expert calls on Liberals, Tories, NDP to join forces during overdose crisis
VANCOUVER — Canada’s political leaders must take bold action by joining forces to decriminalize illicit drugs and save lives in the midst of an unprecedented overdose crisis, a leading drug-policy expert says.
Donald MacPherson of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s stance on legalizing marijuana to protect youth and stop the flow of profits to organized crime must also apply to drugs that have killed thousands of Canadians.
“That’s very sad that he can’t see the logic that he’s using so loudly on cannabis to shift that logic to a far more serious problem,” MacPherson said Wednesday.
MacPherson, who was the architect of Vancouver’s four-pillar drug strategy in 2001, will receive the Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy at Simon Fraser University on Oct. 10, recognizing his national influence on drug policy reform beyond harm reduction, prevention, treatment and enforcement.