Stop Politicizing Safe Supply

On May 29 (not 31) the house of commons will vote on an opposition motion to end all safe supply programs. See "Opposition Motion—Opioid Crisis” at https://www.ourcommons.ca/documentviewer/en/house/latest/hansard

This Campaign’s goal is to rally all members of the House of Commons, Parliament of Canada to oppose this motion. The non-Conservative parties have already indicated their intention to not support this motion; having Conservative members either not support or abstain will send a clear message that politicians should not politicize what is a public health crisis and not subject Canadians to disinformation supporting political party agendas.

Defeating this motion could have the larger positive effect of informing Canadians about the growing evidence supporting the role of Safe Supply as part of a larger spectrum of actions required if we’re going to decrease the horrific loss of life and wide spread harms caused by Canada’s current Drug Policies.

Safe Supply is one of many actions we need to take to stop the ongoing deaths and harms caused by toxic criminalized drugs. All credible research and evidence demonstrates the positive role of Safe Supply:
- Prescribed hydromorphone is not contributing to drug-related deaths
- Reduces the risk of death and/or overdose
- Increased engagement and retention in programs and care
- Improvements in physical and mental health
- Fewer emergency department visits and hospitalizations; decline in health care costs
- Reduced use of drugs from the unregulated street supply
- Stabilizes drug use
See https://www.nss-aps.ca/sites/default/files/resources/2023-05-10-PSSEmergingEvidenceBrief.pdf

Counter to the claims of some politicians, the streets are not flooded with safe supply. In BC about 5% of all people who use drugs have access to safe supply. In ON it is about 1500 people. There are only 26 small safe supply programs in the country. The much larger reality is that over 90% of all deaths are from toxic street drugs -- the BC coroner has stated that there is no evidence that safe supply contributes to deaths. If we take away safe supply many people currently on life saving medication will die as a result, as they are driven back to toxic street drugs. This has been shown when programs were stopped and changed in the past. Effective treatment and then recovery are goals that we all share, but first we need to keep people alive. Safe supply means hope for a future and recovery rather than giving up on people.

Addition resources:
• Form for Contacting Conservative MPs regarding the Opposition Motion by Poilievre on Safe Supply -- https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSderfdt8ZwnOosAG4Bu-0TXb99qoxqc0rEH-w0_-1SbHY2JJw/viewform
• https://www.momsstoptheharm.com/mission-vision-values
• https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/opioids/responding-canada-opioid-crisis/safer-supply.html
• https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-motion-drug-treatment-supply-1.6848116
• https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/london-doctor-fires-back-at-unfounded-anecdotes-about-safe-drug-supply-programs