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Tell Governments to Fund Evidence-Based Solutions
Will you sign the petition or send a letter to politicians, including PRIME MINISTER JUSTIN TRUDEAU, FEDERAL & PROVINCIAL HEALTH & ADDICTIONS MINISTERS?
Demand proven solutions to addictions, mental health and homelessness! Federal, provincial and civic governments in Canada have spent billions on “experiments” that clearly failed both those struggling with addictions and their surrounding communities.
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Driven by activists, poverty groups and those invested in drug companies, Canadian governments have spent billions of our tax dollars on reckless, dysfunctional addictions and mental health programs or warehousing the homeless with little to no success measurement.
Serious financial mismanagement has been revealed through federal and provincial accounting reviews. Meanwhile, addictions, deaths and homelessness are clearly increasing.
Our communities are in chaos from rising crime, random stranger attacks and growing tent cities. Addicts can’t find recovery-oriented treatment and claim current approaches are just “helping everybody get high more”.
CALL ON ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT TO STOP DOUBLING DOWN ON FAILURE WITH MORE EXPERIMENTS LIKE PUBLICLY FUNDED HARMFUL DRUGS, TERMED “SAFE SUPPLY” OR “DECRIMINALIZATION”.
“Alcohol is legally available to adults and is associated with more violence and crime than any other drug.” – Journal of Community Safety and Wellbeing (Dec. 2022)
"Safe Supply" Is Unproven, Not A "Treatment" Say Global Medical Experts
Now, many of these same taxpayer-funded activist and housing groups want Canadians to fund more harmful drugs, ironically termed “safe supply” that merely grows an industry and staffing. Advocates include investors in drug companies like former BC Provincial Health Officer Perry Kendall.
A UBC Clinical Professor and BC addictions doctor, Launette Rieb, told the Globe and Mail that despite anecdotal reports, no existing evidence suggests that “safe supply” reduces fentanyl usage or deaths, adding: “‘Safe supply’ is a misnomer. It is NOT treatment. It is an unproven intervention” with well-established medical risks including heart and spinal infections.
Global medical experts and Stanford University scholars with the Stanford Lancet Commission are equally skeptical in their analysis of drug poisonings in Canada and the U.S. “The very policies they singled out for skepticism,” Somers noted were: “trying to create an alternative pharmaceutical supply of drugs and installing vending machines to dispense drugs now at the top of BC’s current agenda.”
A new article, co-authored by Somers in the Journal of Community Safety and Wellbeing offers proven ways to reduce Canada’s addiction crisis. “Contrary to some popular narratives, contact between the criminal justice system and people who use addictive and intoxicating substances will be prevalent whether drugs are legal or illegal.”
Evidence-Based Research & Solutions
DR. SOMERS’ RESEARCH FINDINGS:
- Addiction cannot be affected by disrupting drug supply.
- Must address conditions that create demand for drugs, including unemployment, homelessness and lack of meaning in life.
- Recovery-oriented housing is critical, proven by randomized trials showing a 71% reduction in crime and a 50% reduction in medical emergencies in the first year of intervention.
- Major goals of those struggling with addictions included: resuming paid work, overcoming their addictions and reconnecting with children or other family members.
- Dr. Somers speaks about his research (video).
Provinces should work collaboratively with the federal government to redevelop Riverview-type treatment facilities on a national level, with an SFU-led curriculum that trains health professionals and peers in community-based wellness and social reintegration, including employment readiness, similar to the successful San Patrignano model in Italy.
Portugal has no drug consumption sites.
Other solutions such as proven reductions in overdoses and addictions can be found in Portugal, available on our Evidence to Promote Wellness page.
Email Our Politicians
Select the recipients and fill in your name below to send an email petition to your chosen politicians.
Honourable Government of Canada and Government of BC and Ontario members:
We all want a compassionate, successful solution to Canada’s growing addiction crisis. After a costly 20-year experiment, medical experts and health researchers can confirm that more publicly funded harmful drugs, ironically termed “safe supply”, or “drug decriminalization”, are not the correct paths to recovery.
We see this failed experiment every day in our major cities, from Toronto to Vancouver, facing rising overdoses and deaths, more homelessness, first responder fatigue and community chaos with growing violence and crime.
Lobbied by activist groups who directly benefit, governments have spent billions of our tax dollars on reckless, dysfunctional programs for addictions and mental health, or warehousing the homeless with no treatment or success measurements and shoddy accounting practices, revealed through forensic audits.
British Columbians and Canadians are fed up, evidenced by recent polls.
We demand the provincial and federal governments focus on proven solutions contained in this 20-year RESEARCH the BC government tried to destroy. This research found the major goals of those struggling with addictions included:
- resuming paid work
- overcoming their addictions and;
- reconnecting with children or other family members.
Current “harm reduction” programs are just “helping people get high more”, say addicts themselves. “Alcohol is legally available to adults and is associated with more violence and crime than any other drug.” – Journal of Community Safety and Wellbeing (December 2022). As the Toronto Coderix Addictions Clinic Medical Director Dr. Vincent Lam says in the Globe and Mail: “Prescribed opioids were an integral part of the creation of this crisis. We are not going to be able to prescribe our way out of it.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Mental Health & Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett, Premier David Eby, Health Minister Adrian Dix, Minister of Mental Health & Addictions Jennifer Whiteside, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Official Opposition Leaders: We are asking you to change course now.
Follow the best practices in Portugal and Italy that focus on successful recovery-oriented treatment in therapeutic communities.
Read Dr. Somers’ Call to Action. You may contact Dr. Somers who can refer you to others with professional expertise across Canada.
Contact: Dr. Julian Somers, Registered Clinical Psychologist, Distinguished Professor Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University (SFU) C: 1 (604) 290-3210 julian_somers@nullsfu.ca
Thank-you for your serious consideration on this important issue.