Health committee  Absolutely. It's a great example of the need to have a multi-faceted approach to this problem. It's not just about decriminalization and it's not just about safe supply and it's not just about education, treatment and prevention. It's about everything together. I think increasing the number of safe injection sites and safe consumption sites where people can inhale, as opposed to just injecting, is a very important piece of that approach.

Health committee  Sure. I can jump in. I think you really speak to the importance of having services like overdose prevention sites readily available to people in the community. We have 12 of them here in Vancouver, but now we recognize that 60% of the people who are dying are dying through inhalation, not injection.

Health committee  Recognizing that part of the challenge here is that when people use drugs alone, they are more likely to die because there's no chance for intervention if they are not with other people, I think it's really important for us to balance the safety and feelings of safety of all community members with the rights of people who use drugs and with our efforts to keep them safe, so yes, I do think that we should we expand the locations in public spaces where people will not be allowed to use drugs.

Health committee  There are lots of opportunities for collaboration with respect to education. To clarify, I was talking about organized crime creating what appeared to be pills that look like prescription medication. It's not necessarily safe supply, but a whole myriad of prescription medication.

Health committee  I'm sorry. I'm not up to speed on the price of hydromorphone. I know it's very cheap, but I also know it's not hydromorphone that is killing people in our province.

Health committee  In the Vancouver Police Department, we commonly talk about different areas that we work in as a tour of duty. I've done three on the Downtown Eastside. I did a tour of duty in professional standards. It's just a common police phrase.

Health committee  We see both. There's no question about that. We know that about 20% of patients who are prescribed hydromorphone, for example, are in a bona fide safe supply program, while about 80% of them are prescribed for pain outside of addiction issues. We also know that about 50% of the hydromorphone pills that we come across can indeed be attributed to safe supply.

Health committee  Well, certainly we have a number of things we do to try to assist our frontline officers. You make a very good point that at the end of the day, they are the ones dealing with the tragedy associated with the toxic drug crisis in terms of a frontline response, along with, of course, all the people who are impacted—the loved ones and the family and friends of people who are dying.

Health committee  That's a great question. I always talk about decriminalization as being one tiny piece of a much, much larger puzzle, and in order to put that puzzle together to see what the picture is, we need increased education and increased prevention. We also need some harm reduction services, such as having our members carry naloxone kits, and we need safe injection sites.

Health committee  I certainly think if it's the case that British Columbia does not successfully have a public consumption act or if we're not able to bring it into force, the other option of course is to add additional exceptions to the Health Canada exemption. We are hoping that the province will exhaust the possibility of bringing the public consumption act into force, because, quite frankly, it's less intrusive when it comes to people who are using drugs.

Health committee  Personally, based on this journey I've been on from the very beginning—in fact, initially with the City of Vancouver, then with the province—I would like to see additional exceptions for beaches, bus shelters, being within a certain distance from residential buildings, businesses, the entrances of workplaces, sports fields, parks and places where families and youth could reasonably be expected to be.

Health committee  Absolutely. One of the things we talked about was private and semi-private places, like, for example, in Tim Hortons or in a McDonald's. Hospitals are another great example. We consulted with our health authority here in Vancouver. They have been dealing with the matter of people having drugs in their possession for many years, whether it be going into an ambulance or into a hospital.

Health committee  There are all sorts of considerations that go into a decision such as that, including the Crown's likelihood of approving charges. It's not to say that we don't collect evidence with respect to that incident and others similar, but we do have a number of things we have to consider, including the Crown's directive with respect to their drug policy.

Health committee  Absolutely. Prior to decriminalization, if someone was using drugs in a problematic circumstance—for example, at a playground, bus shelter or beach—community members were able to call 911. Police were able to attend and address that circumstance. The vast majority of drug users—I've done three tours of duty in the downtown East Side and can assure you of this—have no interest in using drugs around youth and children, for example.

Health committee  I think we all agree that we do not want to criminalize people by virtue of their personal drug use. Those days are gone. We want to support a health-led approach. The problem is, as I said earlier, that the devil is in the details. Quite frankly, police warnings were not heeded in the first instance.