Move to decriminalize minor drug possession has merit: Toronto prof
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The idea of decriminalizing the possession of small quantities of illegal drugs to reduce overall harm to society and those afflicted with addiction has merit, says a Toronto-based academic after a notice was tabled at Winnipeg City Hall to consider the change.
On Thursday, two city councillors tabled a notice of motion in council advocating for decriminalizing small quantities of illegal drugs. Councillors Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) and Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River) chairman of the Winnipeg Police Board, said other Canadian cities are calling on the federal government to relax some drug laws. Decriminalization, they say, would enable addicts to get proper medical and social care without fear of arrest and prosecution. Rollins said Black and Indigenous people are overrepresented in drug arrests.
“It’s abundantly clear that our current approach to dealing with drugs and dealing with people who use drugs has been a failure,” said Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto in a phone interview on Friday. “If the aim of prohibition was to curtail drug use, it has failed miserably, and in the process, it has allowed a multi-billion-dollar illicit drug market to flourish, and the casualties are the people in the communities who use drugs who are criminalized for minor possession, which leads to a host of other problems.”
Owusu-Bempah said decriminalization isn’t a panacea. He’d like to see legalization and regulation – as with cannabis – where there is a government regulated supply of substances.
“I don’t think the country is ready for that yet,” he said. “For people who have serious substance use issues, oftentimes those substance use problems are a result of, but not always, serious trauma they’ve experienced, and what they may need is access to health and mental health. By criminalizing these substances, we decrease the likelihood people are going to seek those services.”
In December, the federal government introduced a bill that would repeal mandatory minimum penalties for drug offences, The Canadian Press reported. The bill, if passed, would allow judges to use discretion when delivering sentences relating to case facts, including considerations of a person’s experience with systemic racism, and whether they pose a societal risk.
The bill would allow for enhanced use of conditional sentences, house arrests, counselling or treatment. Also, it would require authorities to consider alternative consequences for cases of simple drug possession, such as treatment programs, instead of pressing charges or prosecuting.
In 2001, Portugal decriminalized the possession and use of illicit drugs. Instead of arrest, people caught with a personal supply could be warned, fined, or brought before a local commission – a doctor, a lawyer, and a social worker.
“The opioid crisis soon stabilized, and the ensuing years saw dramatic drops in problematic drug use, HIV and hepatitis infection rates, overdose deaths, drug-related crime and incarceration rates,” The Guardian reported.
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