Solutions to End the Drug Poisoning Crisis in Ontario: Choosing a New Direction
At a special Drug Strategy Network of Ontario (DSNO) meeting on April 20, 2022, members endorsed four policy solutions to reduce drug poisoning deaths and injuries in Ontario. Implementing these policies will significantly reduce the harms, including death, experienced by people who consume unregulated drugs. They will also improve community safety by reducing drug-related crime and drug poisoning rates, while simultaneously decreasing community costs incurred by first responders, police and courts responding to the current drug poisoning crisis.
Change is possible. The current drug poisoning crisis needs to be addressed through a coordinated emergency response. The public health and emergency strategies used to contain COVID-19 can also be applied to the drug poisoning crisis. Processes that already exist to manage consumer health and safety offer unrealized opportunities to prevent drug poisonings. Harms resulting from the drug poisoning crisis are the result of policy choices, not individual moral failings. Action can be taken today to improve the health and safety of all residents of Ontario.
Change is possible. The current drug poisoning crisis needs to be addressed through a coordinated emergency response. The public health and emergency strategies used to contain COVID-19 can also be applied to the drug poisoning crisis. Processes that already exist to manage consumer health and safety offer unrealized opportunities to prevent drug poisonings. Harms resulting from the drug poisoning crisis are the result of policy choices, not individual moral failings. Action can be taken today to improve the health and safety of all residents of Ontario.