The B.C. Conservatives are renewing their promise to close the province’s supervised consumption sites and crack down on public drug use, calling the NDP’s policies on drugs a “failed experiment.”
This comes after the Conservatives posted a video of a young family eating ice cream at a Port Alberni Dairy Queen with someone smoking crack just feet away on the other side of the window.
Leader John Rustad says kids should be able to eat ice cream without being “exposed to the horrors of open drug use.”
He says a Conservative government would implement a zero-tolerance policy on open drug use and clean up the streets. He also wants to close all supervised consumption sites in B.C.
Dr. Brian Conway with the Vancouver Urban Health Center says the current system does need improvement, but shutting down those facilities is not the answer.
He says consumption sites keep people alive as they’re using drugs and connect them with health care professionals as well.
“Eventually, many of them will end up on treatment, if that’s what they want,” Conway said.
“The treatment needs to be easy and readily available, not have a six-week wait list, as the voluntary treatment program.”
Conway says closing supervised consumption sites would actually impede many drug users from seeking treatment.
On Sept. 15, NDP Leader David Eby outlined his government’s proposed plans to tackle the drug crisis if his party is reelected in October. This would involve involuntary intervention for individuals with long-term addiction and mental health issues.
Some health experts, including Simon Fraser University’s Dr. Julian Somers, have criticized the NDP’s stance on involuntary intervention. Somers says the government should prioritize perfecting voluntary treatment options before implementing a policy of involuntary care.
Rustad has pledged a treatment-centered model to deal with the toxic drug crisis.
— With files from Michael Williams