Ontario Premier Doug Ford expressed strong support for his government’s decision to close supervised drug consumption sites located near schools and daycares, criticizing the federal government’s safer supply program.
“As far as I’m concerned the federal government is the biggest drug dealer in the entire country,” said Ford on Wednesday while speaking with reporters in St. Catharines, Ont.
“It’s unacceptable, it needs to stop. We need to get rid of safe supply and put money into treatment and detox beds, that’s what we need to do, not continue to give people free drugs.”
Health Canada recently approved 16 safer supply projects in the province, 15 of which will be located in southern Ontario and one in Thunder Bay.
“I get endless phone calls about needles being in the parks, needles being by the schools and the daycares, that’s unacceptable,” said Ford.
The federal government claims that these facilities are “providing prescribed medications as a safer alternative to the toxic illegal drug supply to people who are at high risk of overdose.”
However, several studies show that safe supply sites often lead to an excess of overdose deaths in the areas where they are opened.
“Ever since they’ve been up, it’s a failed policy,” said Ford. “Simple as that. We are making a better policy — $378 million to help these people, support them, get them back on their feet, get them a good paying job. That’s what we need to do, we don’t need to feed them drugs.”
Decriminalization in B.C. was first implemented last year and the province has since seen an overdose death rate of 46.2 per 100,000, which would make it the highest in recorded history.
“They get to go up there (safer supply sites) and get endless, endless amounts of drugs and guess what they do? They go out and they sell it and get other people addicted and then they go out and get stronger drugs,” said Ford.
Another problem that has surfaced since the implementation of safe supply sites is prescribed drugs routinely winding up in the hands of organized crime, who turn around and sell these taxpayer-funded drugs on the street.
Police have been sounding the alarm about this problem for some time. B.C. RCMP seized over 10,000 pills, including hydromorphone, codeine and dextroamphetamine, much of which was presumed to have originated from safe supply sites in an organized crime bust earlier this year.
“It’s being trafficked into other communities, and it is being used as currency in exchange for fentanyl, fuelling the drug trade,” London police chief Thai Truong told reporters last month.
Ford’s comments came a day after his government announced it would close safe supply sites within 200 metres of schools and children.
“Giving someone, an addict, a place to do their injections — we haven’t seen it get better. This was supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. It’s the worst thing that could ever happen to a community to have one of these safe injection sites in their neighbourhood.”
