Background and resources for community
Rather than being benign tools aimed at promoting the health of Canadians, drug laws introduced in the early 1900s were meant for social control and targeted certain groups of people, including Asian immigrants, people of colour, and Indigenous people.
Harm reduction saves lives and connects people with vital social services, health care, and stability.
Legal regulation would create safer communities for everyone. It would greatly reduce overdose, weaken high-level organized crime, and keep drugs away from youth.
By changing the way we see and frame substance use, we can move towards a system of laws and policies that will prevent harm and death.
Stigma can create real and tangible harms for people who use drugs. We can help or harm through our words and behaviours.
The system is failing and fuelling overdose deaths, violence, and organized crime.
The Canadian Drug Policy Coalition is a partner project with the Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction (CARMHA), a research centre based at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.