Drug policy continues to prove controversial, as provinces across Canada adjust how they respond to the drug crisis.
B.C. Premier David Eby recently announced plans to implement involuntary care for people struggling with addiction who also have mental illnesses or brain injuries, while Alberta is launching a centre devoted to producing data on recovery-oriented drug policies.
Dr. Julian Somers, a professor and researcher at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., joined Canadian Affairs reporters Samuel Forster and Alexandra Keeler for a conversation on the two provinces’ approaches to drug policy. Keeler, a Break the Needle Fellow focused on covering crime and addiction, recently returned from a multi-week trip to B.C. and Alberta where she met with politicians, policymakers, health-care workers and local residents to get their views on the provinces’ respective policy responses.
“You could scarcely find two more contrasting jurisdictions anywhere in the world in relation to the sort of the policy vision related to addiction and drug-related problems than … B.C. and Alberta,” said Somers, who specializes in mental health, addiction and homelessness.
The panellists’ hour-long discussion touches on Somers’ own research into community-based recovery models and the role of housing solutions and social services in helping people with substance use disorders. It addresses the role of involuntary care in responding to the drug crisis. And it highlights some of Keeler’s key observations from her trip.
Listen to the full panel discussion here.
“[Research] serves to illustrate the magnitude of silos in our current systems. If you’re going to go in, as Alberta has done, and start looking at where those silos exist and where they might be actually playing a dysfunctional role in relation to addiction and addiction recovery, you start seeing them everywhere.”
– Dr. Julian Somers
“Another thing that kept coming up in my conversations is the idea of agency … giving people a choice in their housing and finding [a way for them to be] independent, helpful and to work and to reintegrate into society.”
– Alexandra Keeler
